Its Like That - The Finished Story
by Renebre
Summary: Draco-Ginny, Harry-Ginny, Ron-Hermione. Romance, slight humor, slight drama. Major character(s) death.Potentially offensive language.
1. Its Like That

Intellectually, Ginny Weasley didn't know why she liked Harry Potter.

It wasn't that she found him especially handsome. There were many people who were, objectively, a lot better looking than Harry. He wasn't short, but he was shorter than most people. The aesthetically pleasing contrast between his jet black hair and bright green eyes wasn't something that was dazzlingly uncommon - despite being fairly so. 

It wasn't even his cleverness, because, even if he _did _display wit and quick thinking when he was in trouble, at other times he was only as smart as Ron - which wasn't very smart. He was nice to her and obviously felt uncomfortable being wealthy when he was around the Weasleys but most people were like that. He was certainly brave, but most of the Gryffindors were too. 

She really didn't know why she liked Harry Potter.

But she did. 

She liked him so much that even now, in her fifth year at Hogwarts, after five years of knowing him, she still flushed bright red whenever he looked at her or spoke to her. She liked him so much that her brothers had stopped teasing her about it. 

She liked him so much that she didn't even mind that he knew that she liked him. She liked him so much she was considering setting fire to Ravenclaw's dormitory so that Cho Chang's hair would be singed. She liked him so much -

Ginny heaved a big sigh and stopped thinking about it. It really wasn't any use, or so she told herself. Despite the fact that she had always liked him, and always told herself she had no chance, she also hoped that she had. Ginny was beginning to feel a little neurotic. Her best friends - Fickle Fran and Coy Connie - had given up trying to make her go out and flirt with other boys. Boys in her year. Boys who didn't have black hair and green eyes. Ginny picked up her books and tucked her wand neatly into her robes. As if to compensate for her wildly untidy red hair, Ginny kept everything else about herself neurotically neat. 

Ginny was rounding the corner, about to go down to the Hall for dinner when she slammed unceremoniously into Draco Malfoy.

Ginny fell on the floor.

Draco's books fell on her.

Draco remained standing.

Ginny looked woozily up at Draco. It didn't take her two seconds to compose herself. Despite her brother's - and more importantly, Harry's - feelings about Draco, Ginny had never thought about him much one way or another. She frequently saw him in the corridors, but they didn't acknowledge each other. Ginny subscribed to the belief that he hadn't done anything to her, so she couldn't feel justified in hating him. The other belief she subscribed to was the belief in all combinations of black hair and green eyes. Especially in boys. Boys in the sixth year. Boys whose names started with _H _and slid over _arry. _

Ginny stopped her train of thought and struggled to get up. Something was holding her down. A few somethings. A few somethings that looked suspiciously like books. Books that didn't belong to her. Books that presumably belonged to Draco Malfoy.

Draco stood glaring down at her, making no move to pick up his books. He had gone through a growth spurt, she noted. Ginny thought that he looked much like a beansprout. White, lanky and unfinished. They stared at each other for a while. Finally Draco leaned over, cursing under his breath and swiped his books off her. It sounded something like ,"Damned Weasleys, they're everywhere -"

Ginny got up and brushed herself off, picking up her books. She examined her wand anxiously. It seemed to be intact. She and Draco stood face to face. Or rather, face to neck. _Her _face to _his _neck, to be exact. "Sorry." She muttered. She wished she didn't always feel this compulsion to be polite. It was positively irritating. 

Draco sneered. "You should be." He growled. "Get out of my way, Weasley."

Weasley got out of his way and stood, fuming. _Now _he had done something to her. 

Ginny felt perfectly justified in feeling that Draco Malfoy was just possibly the most disgusting wizard on the face of the Muggle earth. He should take a leaf out of other people's books. Other _boys' _books. Boys who were polite. Boys who had green eyes and black hair and -

Ginny heaved another sigh and plodded to the Hall.

Ginny sat next to her two best friends and picked up her fork. 

"What's wrong?" Fickle Fran asked. Fickle Fran had gotten her nickname after she had taken two boys to the last Christmas ball and dumped them there after going off with a different boy.

"What?"

"Your face is all red." Coy Connie informed her. Coy Connie had gotten _her _nickname after going to the same Christmas ball with one boy and refusing to dance with him all night long. The poor wizard had sat on the sidelines all night long, looking in a lovesick way at Connie as she danced with the two boys Fickle Fran had discarded. "What happened?"

"I had a run in with Draco Malfoy." Ginny said after a minute.

"That Slytherin bloke?" Fickle Fran asked.

"Hey, he's kind of cute." Coy Connie put in.

Ginny glared impotently at Fickle Fran and Coy Connie. "We had a run in." she repeated. "He dropped his books on me –"

"Who dropped their books on you?" Ron asked. He was with Harry, having just come in from Quidditch practice. He snickered. "I knew you were short, Ginny, but I didn't know you were _that _short."

Ginny refused to say anything, but her face was red. She snuck a glance at Harry, but she needn't have bothered. Her heart fell, and so did her face. Harry wasn't even listening. He was staring abstractedly into the distance. Or – not so abstractedly. The object in the distance seemed to be a girl. A girl who played Quidditch. A girl who was in Ravenclaw. A girl whose initials were C.C and it wasn't Coy Connie.

Cho bloody Chang.

Ginny yanked her gaze back to her older brother and instead met the sympathetic eyes of Coy Connie. For all Connie could be a bitch when it came to guys, there was no one more loyal when it came to the girls. 

Ron seemed to be waiting for an answer. Ginny didn't want to be the one who gave it to him. She – despite being wronged by Draco; her ears burned when she thought of it – really didn't want to add fuel to the fire Ron had been throwing at Draco. "Nobody." Ginny said quietly. She didn't even feel angry anymore. Harry – blast his wizarding hide – _still _wasn't paying any attention. 

Fickle Fran didn't have any such qualms. 

"It was Draco." She told Ron.

Ron's face turned as red as Ginny's. "Draco Malfoy?"

"Is there any other Draco?" Fickle Fran asked.

"Ginny, was it Draco Malfoy?"

Ginny remained quiet. Harry spoke. "Draco Malfoy? What did _he _do _now?_"

Oh, so he was finally paying attention. It took mention of a human beansprout to get the attention of Harry Potter, but not the presence of a female Weasley flamehead. 

"He dropped books on Ginny."

Harry's eyes widened. "Are you all right?"

Ginny nodded as her face went into another round of redness.

"I think Hermione is looking for you." Ginny said quietly, not looking at Harry. She didn't – for the first time since she had met him – feel like looking at him. She didn't feel like looking at Ravenclaw. She didn't feel like looking at anything.

The two left, Ron darting a curious look at Ginny. It wasn't like Ginny to be so reticent. Sure she was usually tonguetied around Harry, but not in that quiet, curiously sad way. It was more a flustered, curiously mumbling way.

"Hogsmeade." Ginny said.

"Are you sure you don't mind us leaving you for the day?" Fickle Fran asked.

Fickle Fran and Coy Connie were meeting two boys from the seventh year. Ginny knew that they were planning for Fran's date to end up with Connie and vice versa, and she had attended enough such soirees that she knew she'd end up awfully uncomfortable. "Sure." She said brightly. "I'll just go find some other girls to walk around with. Don't worry."

Connie gave her a hug. "You're the best. We'll see you later then."

Ginny waved as she walked off. She was looking forward to the day. Hogsmeade was always a surefire cheer-up tonic. She decided to head for Honeydukes first.

She was in Honeydukes examining a few Whizzpopping Wonders, wondering if Fred and George were going to buy them, when Harry, Hermione and Ron walked in, laughing and red cheeked from the wind. Ginny froze. Somehow, this was unspeakably humiliating, being found _alone _when everyone else was pairing up with their friends. It was especially humiliating being found by Harry.

Ron caught sight of her and waved. "Hey, Ginny!" he called, dragging Harry and Hermione along, coming over to her. "What are you doing alone?"

Ginny kept her head down, hoping that if she didn't look at Harry she wouldn't turn red. "Connie and Fran are meeting some boys. I didn't want to go with them."

Ron nodded. "Oh." 

Hermione looked sympathetic. "So, do you want to come with us?" She grinned. "I could use another girl around."

Ginny's heart leapt. A whole day spent with _Harry. _She opened her mouth to say yes when the door opened again. Harry glanced up casually from smiling down at her, and he turned pink. His eyes turned glazed. Ginny looked up.

Her heart really couldn't take this.

Cho bloody Chang.

Harry waved at Cho bloody Chang - most people called her Cho - and she waved back and smiled. Harry turned pinker. He wasn't looking - or smiling - at Ginny anymore.

Why kid herself? Nobody wanted her. Ron was grinning, but she was his sister. Hermione was pitying her. But - the nail that slammed the coffin lid was the way Harry was looking at Cho, despite the fact that she had turned her back on him.

The _yes _Ginny had been about to say turned into a _you. _Or, more specifically, a _you bastard. _She shook her head at Hermione. "No, thanks." She said, her pride making her smile cheerfully despite her angry, sore heart.

Hermione glanced at Harry, and her eyes softened understandingly. She nodded at Ginny. Ginny was glad Hermione understood. 

So few people did.

Ginny wandered out of the store and walked without a purpose. She didn't know where she was heading, she only knew she wanted to get as far away from Honeydukes as possible. Far away from the people inside it. Far away from the boys inside it. Far away from a boy inside it. A boy with black hair and green eyes.

Ginny didn't know how she got there, but she ended up at the edge of the Enchanted (A/N - you know, that forest where the centaurs are - can't remember the name right now..) Forest. She sat down and stared unseeingly before her.

"If it isn't Weasley."

Ginny's head snapped up and she looked at Draco Malfoy.

Draco was lounging against a tree, looking for all the world as if he should be dressed in the most sober of suits - if Ginny had been familiar enough with Muggle clothing to know that - holding a cigar. He looked down his thin, aristocratic nose at her. "Why aren't you at Hogsmeade with your little friends?" He practically sneered the last word. Ginny stiffened, and she turned away from him.

And then she saw.

She saw the Dementors, closing in on her and Malfoy. She edged closer to Draco, and she saw that he had seen them too. His eyes were wide, and he looked strangely young and frightened. 

Memories of her and Tom Riddle swamped her, and she clamped a hand over her ears, but it didn't help. She struggled to remember the incantation Harry had told her about, but it was too difficult. _Expecto, Expecto, Expecto -_

And then she saw the Dementor swooping down on Malfoy. Somehow she knew that it was about to give him the Kiss. Draco was in no condition to help himself, his eyes were squeezed tightly shut, and like her, his hands were clamped over his ears.

Dimly Ginny thought that he deserved what he got, but then she watched, horrified, as it swooped closer to Draco. Then she thought of herself and Tom Riddle, and somehow, she got over to Draco and flung herself over him, covering him with her robes.

Ginny buried her face in her hands, and tried to evade the Dementor, but she was too weak, and too scared. Despair washed over her. 

Then the Dementor swooped down, sucking her soul, and then everything went black.


	2. To Be Or Not To Be - Arsehole Internatio...

A/N : I'd just like to clear up a point on 'It's Like That.' There was supposed to be a double space in between the scene in the Hogwarts hall and when Ginny first says "Hogsmeade", which is, I think, the main reason you - ie the readers - found it so skippy. (Skippy as in skipping from one place to another dizzily) Another point - I forgot to mention it would be having a sequel - which is a duh to me, but to people not acquainted with the recesses of the slime I call my brain, well, I apologize. This is the sequel. This sequel will probably be having a sequel - unless the troll in my cupboard refuses to act as my muse. (Christopher Pike). No explanations as of yet as to why the Dementors appeared - they will be forthcoming in the next part. Thanks for the reviews. Review again?

Disclaimer : Characters, setting are property of the muse of JK Rowling. 

___________________________________________________________________

Her head hurt. Ginny didn't feel like opening her eyes, but she opened them anyway. She couldn't see anything fora moment, just the dazzling blurriness that came with coming out of a dark room into bright sunshine. She blinked a few times. She was presumably in Madam Pomfrey's wing. Ginny knew because of the block of chocolate on the table beside her.

The first thing she saw was a bright red head. It hurt her eyes. But that was just the normal hurting of the eyes she got whenever she saw any of her brothers and not anything terminal. She blinked again, and saw two more red heads, a brown one and - oh, God was great - a black one. 

Ginny tried to remember what had happened. Unfortunately she was successful. A startling terror filled her - she had to know. "Draco - " she said hoarsely, hoarse both from fear and lack of water. 

All five heads whipped towards her immediately.

George grinned. He opened his mouth a few times but didn't say anything.

Fred grinned as well. He kept his mouth shut, and that was stranger than George opening his mouth.

Ron cried, "Draco? You wake up and the first thing you say is _Draco_? Ginny, this is -"

"Hush, Ron." Hermione snapped. "Isn't that the first thing you say to your sister when she finally wakes up - "

Harry just smiled. 

Ginny basked in the glow of that smile. He'd come to see her. He'd actually come to see her. Maybe he did care. Maybe he liked her after all. Maybe he thought of her as more than just -

"Well, I guess we'll leave you guys to coo over your little sister." Harry said.

And then again maybe Harry was an arsehole.

Harry and Hermione exited, pulling the curtains closed behind them as they left. Hermione stopped to smile and say, "Hope you get better soon, Ginny.", but Harry only nodded in agreement. All right. So he didn't think her important enough to even waste words on. He didn't think her important enough to add his own "Hope you get better soon." Instead of a nod. A measly _nod _for the sick Weasley. 

Ginny stopped that train of thought. She smiled weakly at her three brothers. "How is Draco?"

"Draco is fine." Ron said through tight lips. He scowled. "A lot finer than you were when Dumbledore found you. What were you _thinking _of, Ginny, protecting Draco? Draco is -"

Fred intervened. "Draco is fine, Ginny." He pulled open the curtain on her right, revealing an unconscious beansprout of a boy. "He's sleeping."

"What happened?"

"Many things happened." Ron fumed. "My sister almost _died _protecting -" he gave a shudder and pointed, his finger shaking with virulent hatred. " - _that_."

George said, "Shut up you stupid git."

Fred ignored them as they started to scuffle. Ginny hoped they'd both wrestle till nothing was left except a pile of red hair. "Dumbledore came along just as the Dementor was sucking your -" he fell quiet, and resumed, "Well _anyway. _He came along and the Dementors scatted. He brought you to Madam Pomfrey. Luckily, not much damage was done - "

"Enough damage was done to ensure that your sister shouldn't be disturbed." Madam Pomfrey said, bustling into the curtain enclosed space. 'Scat." She waved royally at the curtain. 

Meekly the Weasleys scatted. Madam Pomfrey pushed Ginny back onto the bed with one hand and with the other she shoved a block of chocolate down her throat. Ginny choked.

"Don't try that on _me, _Ginny Weasley." Madam Pomfrey said, not looking at her. "I've been a healer longer than the Weasley's have had red hair -"

Ginny clawed at her throat.

" - and if it's one thing I've learned -"

Ginny pressed frantically at her neck.

" - it's never to trust a sick Weasley -"

The block of chocolate popped out of her windpipe and onto the bedsheet.

Madam Pomfrey looked up from her mixing of a potion and stuck it back in Ginny's mouth. " - especially one that wants to get out of taking medicine -"

Ginny swallowed just in time. Madam Pomfrey poured a glassful of potion down her throat. Ginny gurgled frantically. 

"There." Madam Pomfrey smiled, satisfied. "All done. It wasn't that bad, now, was it? Now, just you go to sleep and you'll be right as rain in the morning." 

With a bustle, a flounce, and a twitch of the curtains, Madam Pomfrey disappeared. 

Ginny, panting, lay back on her bed. It was a wonder anyone got out of here alive. She hadn't even had time to ask Madam Pomfrey if she could talk to Dumbledore.

She thought of what Madam Pomfrey had said - it was all part of the social stigma of being a Weasley. Weasleys were characteristically red haired, dirt poor and magical - a stigma believed and jeered at by people like -

"You awake?" 

    * Draco Malfoy.

Ginny turned and sat up. Draco, dressed in the white hospital robes, could have

faded into the background, he was so white. He had his usual sneer on his face. Well, at least he was consistent. Ginny could think of another person who was consistent. Consistent in breaking her heart. Consistent in liking Cho bloody Chang. Consistent in being Harry bloody Potter.

Best to stop those thoughts. Ginny nodded at Draco. She felt strangely uncomfortable. "Are you all right?"

"Fine." Draco said brusquely. He opened his mouth and hesitated. He lowered his eyes. "Can I come in?"

Ginny nodded again. Her face flamed red. "Erm - yes, sure."

Draco was sitting on her bed, not looking at her. He seemed to be just as uncomfortable as she was. Ginny fervently hoped he was. Maybe he would leave sooner. What did he want anyway? To thank her for saving his life? Ginny's face flamed again. That would be the thing most decent people would do. But Draco Malfoy wasn't decent. He was, quite frankly, an arsehole. Ginny didn't blame him for being an arsehole. He couldn't help it. She could think of another person who was an arsehole. A person who didn't know he was being an arsehole. A person who was consistent in being an arsehole. A person who was Harry bloody Potter.

Ginny stopped. Draco spoke. "I wanted to ask you why you did that." He said in a low voice. 

Ginny knew what he was saying. He would never thank her - an arsehole wouldn't - but he was acknowledging it. She could see that it was humiliating for him, to be saying this to - of all people - a _Weasley. _A redheaded, poverty stricken, enemy-line Weasley. So she spoke truthfully. 

"The Dementors were making me think of Tom Riddle." She said simply. "I imagined it was _me _they were giving the Kiss, and Tom Riddle the Dementor, and I was thinking of how Harry -" she stopped, "Harry saved me. And - I don't guess I was thinking much at all."

Draco's sneer was on his face. "Of course." He said mockingly. "You imagined you were Harry the Hero."

Ginny scowled and flamed red again. She said nothing.

Draco laughed.

"You know." Ginny said, breathing hard. "Most people would just thank me."

Draco laughed again, but his face was uncertain. The arrogance was still there, but uncertainty was making him waver.

"Most people would have just left _you._" Ginny continued, her thoughts diverted to Harry. Most people would have left her in the Chamber of Secrets. "Most people would have just run. Or if they didn't, most people would have thanked me, you know." Was she repeating herself? "Most people would have thanked me and given me flowers. Or maybe a card. Or a kiss on the cheek. Or a hug." But no. Not an arsehole. 

Draco kissed her.

Ginny was startled. 

Her first thought was _Oh._

Her second thought was, _If kissing all arseholes_ _is like this - why don't more people do it?_

She didn't have time for a third thought.

Draco was flung away from her by a red faced Ron. Draco slammed onto the floor. He blinked. 

Ginny blinked too. She wondered dimly what had happened. She also wondered about the expression that had been on Draco's face before he blinked, wiping it away. An expression that was full of surprise, softness, desire. An expression that was devoid of a trace of smirkiness. An expression to build a dream on.

"_How dare you?"_


	3. Not The Right Guy

A/N I'm not sure if I should end it here - but I don't think I will. Then again, it all depends on the urges that come to me in the middle of the night.

Disclaimer : Characters and setting belong to JK Rowling.

Ron flung himself on Draco, punching him square on the nose. Draco started fighting back. Ginny watched in shock, only realizing a second later that Harry had come in with Ron. She stared at him for a second, unable to connect his features with the idea of Harry Potter, the boy she'd been crushing on since she'd first seen him. It was only with slow, tedious feeding of the facts to herself that she could intellectually connect them. Black hair, green eyes. Straight nose. Glasses. It seemed to take forever, but it was only about a minute. Then she noticed the shocked look on his face. He was gaping - yes, actually _gaping _- at her, lower jaw hanging open. He was _shocked _- he was actually shocked at finding her with Draco. Maybe he was jealous. 

Ginny wished she could dwell on that for longer than three seconds, but she couldn't, so she filed the thought away and flung herself on Ron, pulling ineffectually at his arms. He definitely had the upper hand now - his anger was fueling him, whereas Draco had been caught by surprise. 

Harry finally decided to stop gaping and start helping and together they pulled Ron off Draco. He flailed his arms strongly and angrily, and it was only with extreme force that they could hold him back. Draco pulled himself into sitting position, swiping his wand hand against his nose, which was bleeding. Ron's right eye was black and so was the expression on his face. 

Ginny took another glance at Draco. Great. Just fantastically great. The smirky expression was back on his face, and he wasn't looking at her. He was sneering at Ron. "Come on, Weasley." He taunted. "Angry because I kissed your sister? Or maybe you're just jealous because you can't get the girl you want - because you can't get the _Mudblood _you want -"

Ron made another lunge for Draco, and Ginny had to strive to pull him back, because Harry had let go, and was looking furiously at Draco. Ginny knew the only reason Draco wasn't spewing blood right now was because Harry had gotten in a lot of trouble the previous year for bloodying him up for making the sort of comment Draco had just made. Only then it had been about -

Ginny's heart fell at the memory - Cho Chang. Angrily she let go of Ron, but before Ron could set into Draco again, she flew to his side. "Stop it." She said angrily. "Would you just stop it? What did you come back for anyway?" She didn't quite know why she was angry, but she was. She was angry because the world had so many arseholes in it. She was angry because one of those arseholes was her brother. She was angry because another of the arseholes was Harry bloody Potter. She was angry because she had just kissed another of the arseholes and he was smirking. And she was angry because -

Well, anyway, she was angry.

Ron was looking at her as if he'd never seen her before. "Why are you defending him?" he demanded.

Harry was looking at her as well.

Ron was speaking - again! Why couldn't he ever just shut up? - "Ginny, don't tell me you actually _like _this piece of - what are you _thinking _- "

Draco laughed mockingly. "You want to know the truth, Weasley? The truth is that Ginny stops thinking whenever I do this." He caught her head roughly and placed his lips on hers bruisingly. 

Sparks flew. 

Bells rang. 

Lightning flashed.

The dead came back to life and Harry was in love with her.

Well, maybe not the last part. Ginny was stunned into silence, and she would have responded, but she was too busy thinking of the effect Draco Malfoy had on her. Draco removed his lips from hers - and the expression in his eyes was unguarded. He looked young and frightened, and strangely soft. It was almost scary to see him like that, especially because he always looked so hard and tough and arrogant - he looked like a beansprout, but he looked like a hard, tough, arrogant beansprout. He was as dazed as she was, she could _feel _it. 

Then the next moment he blinked and that awful smirk was back on his face.

Ginny sincerely wished she could cut his mouth off him. Ron was looking at her, his mouth open, and Harry looked - _blank. _As if he had just had the surprise of his life and he wasn't quite sure how to deal. 

Maybe he _was _jealous after all.

"Ar-hum." Dumbledore's voice harrumphed mildly. "Am I interrupting something?"

Everyone said no at the same time. Ginny could feel her face turn red. Across the curtain enclosed space Ron's face was red as well. Harry still looked blank and she didn't dare to turn and see what Draco looked like.

Dumbledore nodded at Ginny. "Are you recovered, Miss Weasley?"

Ginny nodded hastily.

"I came because I thought you might have some questions for me." 

Ginny's eyes widened. "Yes."

"Well then." He sat on her bed and looked over his glasses at Ron and Harry. It occurred to Ginny that Dumbledore was getting old - or rather, that he was getting older. His movements were slow and measured, and he had a way of blinking that made him seem very tired. 

"Mayn't we stay?" Ron blurted. Ginny just _knew _what he was thinking. He was thinking that he didn't want his baby sister alone with the big bad Draco Malfoy. Well, she hoped he knew what _she _was thinking. It involved swear words and rope and testicles. _His _testicles. 

Dumbledore smiled. "I have no doubt that whatever I tell Ginny now will be fodder for talk later in the Gryffindor common room whether I let you stay or not."

"Does that mean we can stay?" Ron asked.

Dumbledore considered. "I'm not quite sure myself. You might as well go to class, Mr. Weasley."

Ron grudgingly trotted out of the room, Harry in tow. Ginny wondered if Draco would be allowed to stay, and since Dumbledore said nothing about his presence, she guessed it meant that he was allowed to stay. 

"Why were there Dementors?" Ginny blurted out. She felt her face turn red - it seemed to be happening a lot lately; maybe the blood vessels in her face were clotted - and wished she could take that back. She tried to compose herself. "I mean - I thought Dementors weren't _allowed _in Hogwarts or whatever - and there they _were_ - "

"It was a mistake." Dumbledore said, his face hardening slightly. "There was a slight slip-up when the students were going out of Hogwarts. Rest assured that it will not happen again, Miss Weasley."

"But _why_? Why would they come to Hogwarts?"

Dumbledore hesitated, as if making up his mind about something. His words were slow and precise. "I suppose, Miss Weasley, that you know that Hogwarts has always been a place that Voldemort has never been able to breach."

Ginny flinched automatically at the sound of You-know-Who's name, but she nodded.

"I can only hazard a guess that he thinks if he can destroy - so to speak - this place, it will be easier to take over the wizarding world." Dumbledore paused again. "We will, of course, be doing everything in our power to prevent this for the same reason."

Ginny absorbed this silently. Draco spoke up. "Will you be er- successful?"

Dumbledore smiled pleasantly. "We hope so, at any rate."

Ginny tried to smile, but her facial muscles didn't seem to be working. "Professor?"

"Yes, Miss Weasley?"

"I thought - that is, before you came - I thought that the Dementors had given me the Kiss - and I didn't know - I didn't know that it was reversible - and - " Ginny stopped, her breathing shallow and rapid.

Dumbledore tactfully looked away as Ginny tried to compose herself. Ginny took a few breaths and promptly had it taken away from her again when Draco slipped his hand into hers.

Ginny looked up at him, surprised. Draco's arrogant face looked down at her. For some reason - a very sick reason, probably - it comforted her. When Dumbledore looked back, Ginny looked straight at him.

"As a matter of fact, Miss Weasley, it isn't."

Ginny tried to process this. "What does that mean? I've got another person's soul in my body? I'm dreaming this?"

"Nothing so dramatic, I assure you. The Dementor hadn't quite finished extracting your soul from your body. It was a matter of which side had more pull, the Dementor or you. With a few of the teachers helping you - _you _did. The process couldn't be completed. The Dementor gave your soul back to your body."

____________

"So are you all right?" Coy Connie's concerned face looked at Ginny.

"No perverted side effects?" Fickle Fran asked.

Ginny laughed and hugged both of her friends. "Of course not."

"I don't know." Ron's scornful voice said from behind her. "Kissing Draco Malfoy seems pretty perverted to me."

Ginny refused to turn around. "What do you want, Ron?"

"You kissed Draco Malfoy?" Coy Connie squealed.

"I _thought _he was cute." Fickle Fran said in a satisfied voice.

Ginny whipped around and glared at Ron. Ron glared back. Hermione appeared and placed both hands on one of Ron's arms. "Sorry, Ginny. I can't imagine how his cage got opened. Come on Ron." She dragged Ron away.

"Yes, I kissed him." Ginny said, before her friends could ask again. "And I don't want to talk about it yet." She cast a pleading look at Connie and Fran. "Please?"

"Speaking of -" Connie said in a knowing voice.

"Speaking of what?"

"The Devil, of course. I always thought the Devil was dark haired, but I guess not." She giggled as Draco appeared in front of Ginny.

"Can we talk?" he said, but he didn't sound as if he was asking.

Ginny nodded, but he wasn't paying attention. He was already dragging her to a corner of the Hall.

"I like you." Draco said straight out.

Well, had she expected flowery poetry and flowers from Draco Malfoy? No, not really. In fact, she hadn't expected anything from him at all.

"Will you be my witch?" he asked.

She took one look at him. That one look at him told her everything she needed to know. He wasn't looking at her, he was standing straight as he always did, tall and arrogant. His white hair fell in a lock over his forehead. His chin was jutting out aggressively and he looked proudly at the wall behind her head. And he was asking _her. _A Weasley. She knew how much this must be costing him.

She thought of Harry and how she had liked him for the past few years.

She thought of Draco and how his kisses made her feel.

She thought of Ron and what he would say - or rather, scream.

Then she smiled. "Yes."


	4. To Burst A Vessel

A/N : The main problem with the story so far seems to be that there is no explanation for the Dementors being in Hogwarts. I thought I had explained it satisfactorily enough previously with the story that they had snuck into Hogwarts while the students were exiting it to go to Hogsmeade, and they had done so because Hogwarts being the seat of power for the 'good' - so to speak - wizards and witches, once tumbled, would prove devastating to the defence against Voldemort.(Spirits fall when people die, etc.) Maybe I didn't write it properly, or maybe there is some fundamental flaw within this logic which I -probably having lost my perspective - am unable to see. (?) If so, I welcome any suggestions on how to get myself out of this muck. Thanks for all the reviews. Review again? 

Oh.

And no, I'm not Australian.

Disclaimer : Characters, setting is the property of JK Rowling.

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Harry looked over Ron's shoulder and saw Draco Malfoy talking to Ginny Weasley. Malfoy seemed to be talking rather intently, and Ginny was listening, her face expressionless. A moment later Malfoy stopped talking and Ginny, after a minute, smiled up at him and took his hand. Malfoy smiled back, and for once he didn't look like the stuck up prick he usually looked like. The smile vanished in the next instant, and Malfoy said something that made Ginny laugh. They parted and Ginny went to join her two best friends who were sitting a few seats away from Harry, Hermione and Ron. Harry fervently regretted not sitting closer to Coy Connie and Fickle Fran.

He looked back at his plate. Hermione nudged him teasingly. "Look, Harry. Cho just came in."

Harry looked up automatically, but it was a minute before he could see Cho's hair in the crowd. She had nice hair, Harry had always thought so. Long and black and shiny. There was a lot of it. But it didn't stand out in a crowd, you had to look for it, you didn't just spot it straight away, like you would red hair -

Harry gave himself a mental shake and pushed his glasses further up his nose in a hard gesture. So hard that the glasses squashed against his face, squelching his eyelashes. He turned back around and found Hermione rolling her eyes. Ron was muttering into his goulash. Harry didn't bother listening - he assumed it was about the same subject Ron had been on since he'd found Ginny kissing Draco - namely, Ginny kissing Draco. 

"Good God, Ron!' Hermione burst out, slamming her hand down on the table, making Harry jump and his goulash hop happily onto his glasses. "Can't you talk about _anything _other than your little sister?"

Ron glared at her. "_You _wouldn't be so complacent if it had been _your _sister. Your sister, whom you'd looked after since birth, your sister, whom you'd rocked in her cradle, your sister, whom you'd helped with homework -"

"You helped Ginny with homework?" Harry asked, surprised.

Ron ignored him, majestically standing up, but his face turned red. "_Your _sister, with Malfoy!"

Hermione snorted. "I'd be acting a lot more reasonably, I can tell you that!"

Ron snorted back. "We Weasleys look after one another! If I let my little sister go out with that - that _thing _- I'd never forgive myself! We Weasleys know how to take care of our own! We Weasleys -"

"We Weasleys are going to be completely humiliated if you don't shut up, Ron." George growled, covering his face.

"Why isn't anyone taking this seriously?" Ron demanded. "Fred, _you _know what Malfoy is like! Why -"

"Maybe _you're _taking this a bit _too _seriously, Ron." Fred practically snarled. A few other Gryffindors were beginning to look at them. "For the love of God, would you sit down?"

Ron glared mutinously, but he plunked into his seat, staring hostilely at his two brothers. "Why aren't you _listening _to me?"

"Along with the rest of the table?" Hermione asked sarcastically. 

Ron ignored her.

George moaned.

Fred growled impotently. "It had to happen sooner or later, Ron. Ginny isn't just our kid sister, she is a girl -"

"Did I say I minded that it happened? I don't mind that it happened. I never _said _I minded that it happened. I never even _hinted _that I minded that it happened -"

"What happened?" Harry asked.

"Hush." Hermione hissed.

Harry subsided.

Ron continued as if he hadn't heard him. " - but why did it have to happen with DRACO BLOODY MALFOY?" he ended on a shrill shout.

All four of them kicked him under the table. 

"I admit Malfoy wouldn't have been my first choice." Fred said slowly. "But he seems to like her well enough. We don't even know if he's going to _do _anything about it." He grinned at the thought of Malfoy "Besides, if he does anything wrong we'll give him a taste of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes."

"How's it coming along?" Harry asked, grinning. Fred and George had been slowly expanding their collection of joke inventions for the past two years. They were planning to open up a shop in Hogsmeade when they finished at Hogswarts. They had declared open war on Zonko's, especially after the owner had refused to sell them any more jokes after they'd almost destroyed the shop with one of their jokes. They weren't even allowed on the pavement outside the shop.

George beamed. "It's coming along great!"

"Like a rabbit in May." Fred added.

Harry tried to puzzle that one out. He gave up. 

Ginny was happy. Life, on the whole, couldn't have been better. Disregarding a few niggling details, everything seemed to be going perfectly. In public, Draco refused to do anything more scandalous than hold hands - in private, he was hot enough to make Ginny flush even at the thought of it. The reason for the former was probably because everytime Ron saw them together he growled deep in his throat like a mad cow and made as if to lunge at Draco. Draco usually stopped and smirked whenever he did this, usually because Hermione or Harry was on hand to chain Ron and drag him away. When they weren't around, Ginny growled back.

Ginny didn't want to think about the scene Ron had made in the Gryffindor common room when she had told him - and Fred and George - that she and Draco were a couple. Ron had started screaming at the top of his voice - no words, just a sort of howl, making all the Gryffindors stare at him in shock. Everyone had started backing away from him, watching fascinatedly, until Ron was standing alone, in the middle of a circle the Gryffindors had formed around him. Then he'd started yelling at her, expounding on the evils of Slytherins. The evils of one particular Slytherin. The evils of one particular Slytherin named Draco Malfoy. The evils of going out with Draco Malfoy. The evils of a _Weasley _going out with Draco Malfoy. The evils of the sky being blue and the grass being green when a Weasley was going out with Draco Malfoy. Fred and George had finally had to put a binding curse on him so they could carry him up to his room while Ginny escaped to her own dorm. Thanks to her stupid mad cow arse of a brother every single Gryffindor knew about her and Draco.

Ginny scowled into her textbook. She was supposed to be studying for her OWLs, but she was supposed to meet Draco in a few minutes and she was too excited to sit still. True, it still hurt a little - maybe more than a little - to see Harry looking at Cho, but it didn't diminish her feelings - or hormones - when she was around Draco. Or even when she was thinking about Draco. 

Ginny slammed her book shut and scuttled out of the library. Her step quickening she skipped lightly down the corridor. They were supposed to meet by the lake. She skipped around a corner and right into -

Harry Potter's chest.

"Ow."

"Ouch."

"Sorry." Ginny said, blushing. Damn her genes.

"It's OK." Harry assured her. He hesitated. "So - where are you headed?"

"The lake."

"Want me to walk you there?"

Ginny's eyes widened. Something was up. Harry had never offered to walk her _anywhere. _Ever. "Erm - s-sure."

Harry walked beside her. He seemed to be preoccupied. "So - why are you going to the lake?" he blurted out.

This was strange. Very strange. Why would he care? Maybe Cho was waiting at the lake. Ginny looked at Harry and compared him to Draco. Of course, Draco was a lot handsomer - you could see his potential even in this puberty-induced, unfinished state. Whereas Harry -well, Harry would never be considered classically handsome. He was cute, but not handsome. Still -

"Oh!" she said, startled, only then registering his question. "Oh. I'm - erm - meeting Draco."

Harry said nothing. 

They walked the rest of the way in silence. Draco's eyes narrowed slightly when he saw who was with her. Ginny flashed him a smile. Harry handed her over with a mumbled, "I guess I'll see you later."

He walked off, that preoccupied air still around him. Ginny's heart tightened when she saw Cho appear in the door of the building and wave at Harry. Harry waved back after a moment and Cho ran lightly across the grass and took Harry's arm. Ginny almost gagged when she saw Cho smile sickeningly up at Harry. Damn. Damn. Damn.

She turned back to Draco and found him studying her coolly.

"What's up?" she asked lightly.

"You tell me." Draco returned coldly. "Why were you with Potter?"

"I bumped into him and he offered to walk me over." Ginny said. She smiled at Draco. He was jealous. Of course he was. She would have been jealous if he had walked over with - she didn't know - anybody, she supposed. She liked this. She knew she shouldn't, but she savoured the moment anyway. It was nice that he cared enough that he was actually jealous. Jealous. J-E-A-L-O-U-S. Ginny was convinced it was one of the greatest words in the English language. She could have rolled it over her mind over and over and over again. She filed the thought away, to be brought out and dwelled on later.

"Are you trying to make me jealous, Ginny?"

"Of course. Every girl likes her wizard to be a little jealous sometimes. It proves that he cares."

Draco sneered. 

Ginny recoiled. He had never sneered at her before. Ron, yes. Harry, yes. Everybody, yes. Her, no.

She found herself putting out a hand to catch him by the arm. "Draco - I was just kidding. You _know _I wouldn't do anything with Harry."

"Do I? Can you tell me honestly that you don't care a fly's arse about him anymore?"

Ginny wondered what she should say. She decided to tell the truth. Honesty was the best policy, or so they said. "I do still - "

Draco snorted. 

"But - I'm with _you _now. And I like you and I would never do anything like what you think I would do."

Draco seemed to calm down. He dismissed the subject. "I know. Eventually you'll figure out that Potter is a jackass." He grinned down at her and kissed her long and hot on the mouth. "And he can't give you that." He whispered into her mouth.

Ginny was breathing hard. "No. I don't think he can."

Draco pulled away. "My parents are coming on Saturday."

"What for?" Ginny asked.

"Just a visit. They're taking me out to dinner." Draco seemed to hesitate. "I want them to meet you."

Ginny recoiled again, this time mentally. She'd heard enough about Lucius Malfoy - mostly from her brothers and father, it was to be admitted - that she didn't ever want to meet him. After meeting him once that time in the book shop in her second year - and after finding out that _he _had been the one to give her Tom Riddle's diary - she really really didn't want to meet him again.She looked up at Draco. "I've met your father, remember?" she said, her bright brown eyes darkening.

Draco grinned, and caught her chin teasingly. "I know, I know. You've heard he's an all-out bastard, and that time you met him in the bookshop was horrid. But seriously, he's really a great person." Draco's eyes seemed to glaze over. "You don't know him." His tone was hero-worshipful. Ginny realized that Draco adored his father. He probably felt about his father what _she _felt about _her _father.

Damn.

"Come on, Gin-gin."

"All right, Drakey." Ginny retorted. She chewed on her lower lip. If Draco was there - on her side - how bad could it be? "All right."

Draco laughed. "Come on, Ginny, it'll be great."

"Why don't you convince me?" Ginny asked, sliding her arms around his neck and pulling his head down. Nagging Doubt Alert rang inside her head but it was lost in the sea of lust she felt for Draco. Mmmm.


	5. Daddy's Boy

A/N Firstly I would like to apologize for how long it took for this part to come out - what with Hari Raya, New Year's, Christmas, Boxing Day, and the barrage of holidays and celebrations lately, it took a long while before I could shake off guests and scramble to the computer. That and the fact that I was stuck; I couldn't think of a way to introduce Lucius Malfoy. I have a feeling that this part is somewhat under par; it took an amazingly long time to write. However, hopefully the next part - which is definitely in progress - will be back up to standard. 

Thanks to all my reviewers whom unfortunately I cannot mention here, and thanks especially to the flamer who showed me what a flame was! Review again? (Everyone)

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Ginny fussed with her school robes, tugging at the collar. "How do I look?" she asked Draco, who seemed just as nervous as she was. She didn't know why - Lucius was _his _father after all. Draco cast a glance at her and that seemed to cheer him up a little. 

"Like _my _witch." He replied possessively, pulling her into a hug. 

Ginny laughed, cuddling her head into his neck. She smiled, her nervousness temporarily forgotten. But only temporarily.

"He's going to be here soon." Draco mumbled, letting go of her. He started to fidget, then caught himself and stopped, lifting his chin in a proud, unconscious gesture. 

Ginny said nothing. There was nothing to say. 

Five minutes later Lucius Malfoy appeared in front of them, seemingly out of nowhere. Ginny fervently wished people wouldn't do that. It always gave her a shock and when she got shocks, her face turned bright red. Ginny fervently wished her face wouldn't do that.

Draco let go of her hand and looked up - only slightly - at his father. "Hello."

Lucius didn't bother returning the greeting, but swept a cold eye over Draco. "You've grown, I see."

Draco started to smile, and so did Ginny. That was a nice sort of thing to say. Maybe Mr. Malfoy wasn't so bad after all. Maybe he was actually a nice guy. Maybe -

He added. "At last."

And maybe Mr. Malfoy was a jerk.

Draco's smile was swept off his face and replaced with a cold look. His eyes were cold and guarded, like they had been towards her before they had started kissing. For some reason, this made Mr. Malfoy nod with approval.

"Where's Mother?" Draco asked.

"Your mother is waiting at the restaurant." Mr. Malfoy seemed to be ignoring Ginny. "She hates Hogwarts." He added contemplatively.

"Father, I want you to meet Ginny Weasley."

"As you know very well, Draco, I have already met Miss Weasley." Mr. Malfoy didn't even bother glancing at her. "Along with her troop of brothers."

Draco's expression didn't change. _He _wasn't looking at her either. "She's my girlfriend."

Mr. Malfoy looked at Ginny. He smiled pleasantly - or at least, his thin lips curled upwards in a semblance of a smile. "In bed, or out of it?"

Ginny flinched.

Draco said nothing.

Mr. Malfoy's voice was soft and insidious, befitting the snake he was. "And what happened to Patty Parkins?"

"_Pansy. Parkinson._" Draco seemed to be speaking through gritted teeth.

Ginny was startled. She didn't know why; after all, she'd seen Pansy and Draco at several school balls together. It was just that she hadn't connected that idea - or that Draco - with the Draco _she _went out with. She realized with a sickening plop in her stomach that it must have been pretty serious if Mr. Malfoy knew about it.

Mr. Malfoy waved a slim hand dismissively. "Pansy Parkinson. What happened to her?" His tone seemed to be one of humoring his son's impulsive whims.

"We broke up a long time ago." Draco said stonily. He swept a hand towards Ginny, still not looking at her. "Ginny is my girlfriend now."

"One of them." Mr. Malfoy replied smoothly. He smiled coldly. "Shall we go?"

Draco nodded stiffly. As Mr. Malfoy strode ahead, Draco turned to Ginny, still not looking at her. "I'll see you tomorrow."

Ginny shrugged, but it was an awkward move. She suddenly felt very awkward, as if her arms and legs were new and she was trying to practice gestures that should have come naturally. "Yeh." Her voice was squeaky. Ginny just _knew _she was going to torture herself over that for ages. She could already feel her face turning red.

Draco nodded, and hurried off after his father. Despite his coldness during the brief - thank goodness - hellish interview, Ginny suddenly saw him as a desperately eager-to-please son, trying to mold himself in the image of his father. She felt sorry for him, and knew that if he ever knew that, he would hate her.

Draco entered the restaurant and sneered inwardly at the décor. In fact, he sneered inwardly at the restaurant itself. It was pathetic. He was surprised his father had chosen it. It obviously didn't cater to superior clientele. More like to '_El_ poor wizards' clientele. 

"I see you don't approve of my choice of restaurants. I thought you would." His father said meditatively, but Draco had long learnt to distrust the everchanging ripples and ebbs of his father's mellifluous voice. He didn't mistake the calm, thoughtful inflection of his father's voice as a sign that his father was feeling calm or thoughtful. He prepared himself as best he could for what he knew would come.

He was right. The honeyed, mellow tone turned sharp and icy. "It goes very well with your new whore."

Draco gritted his teeth. The urge to defend Ginny washed over him, but he fought it. It was better not to say anything. It wouldn't change anything. His father wouldn't accept Ginny. He would always think of her as a Weasley whore. Draco controlled his features tightly and prepared himself for a night of Ginny-bashing.

His father seemed almost pleased that Draco didn't say anything. He walked over to where his mother was sitting, her chin raised, regarding the rest of the population as pawns through vague blue eyes that wandered cloudily. "Hello Mother." Draco said coolly.

She looked at him and smiled vaguely. Draco wondered if she remembered him. "Hello." 

Obviously not.

With that they sat. Lucius Malfoy ignored his wife and looked at the menu. A witch waitress dressed scantily - very scantily - in artistically ripped robes appeared at their table. She smiled brightly, bright red lips stretching into a smile. What, Draco assumed, was supposed to be a smile, anyway. "Hello and good evening! What will you be having?"

Lucius looked at her in contempt. "Do you like this one, Draco?" he drawled insolently. "She seems to be in the same class as your new whore."

Draco said nothing. 

The waitress' supposed smile faltered slightly. "Excuse me?"

Ginny waited outside Draco's Potions class. She shivered slightly. It was drafty down in the dungeons. Finally Neville Longbottom scurried out of the class, clutching Trevor protectively to his chest. He looked like he was about to cry. Ginny felt a wrenching pang of pity, but it was forgotten in her eagerness as she watched for a white head amongst the darker ones. Harry came out of the classroom, talking to Ron. Ron was muttering, "…stupid git…." And Harry seemed to be, as usual, only half-listening. They caught sight of her and Ron's face darkened. "Waiting for Mal - "

Hermione appeared just in time and scowled. Ron subsided, but only barely. Draco finally came out, looking cool and bored, flanked by Crabbe and Goyle. Ginny brightened. Ever since the night before, she'd been anxious to see Draco. She didn't know why, exactly - it was a mixture of things - to find out if he was mad at her for not saying anything to his father, to find out if they were all right, to find out if she really had totally embarrassed herself by squeaking and blushing and moving like a rusty tin man. And to find out about Pansy Parkinson. They were all vague concerns, but they were unresolved, and Ginny knew that the tortuous cramping of her stomach and awareness of her beating heart wouldn't stop until Draco smiled at her.

Draco stopped and looked at her, just looked at her, no softening of the features. He said nothing. But at least he had stopped.

"Hi." Ginny said uncertainly.

Draco opened his mouth. His voice was low. "Hi."

Ginny was so relieved he was talking to her - although she really didn't have a rational reason for why he _shouldn't _have - that she smiled brilliantly. Ginny had a great smile. She knew it. She used it.

Draco smiled slightly. It wasn't enough to erase all her anxieties, but it muted them some.

"Are you free?" she asked.

"Yes."

"Wanna go somewhere?"

Draco looked briefly at Crabbe and Goyle and they lumbered off noisily. Ginny had a fleeting thought that he had certainly trained them well. 

Draco didn't take her hand, as he normally would have - Ginny was morbidly aware of the difference - but he moved slightly closer to her. "I'm right behind you."

Ginny took his hand.

He didn't take it away.

Ginny took that as a good sign. She didn't speak until they had reached someplace they could be alone. She didn't speak for a long time. Hogwarts seemed to be crawling with students that day - probably due to the lashings of rain that seemed to be inherent everytime Ginny wanted it to be sunny. They finally found an empty stairwell and Ginny sat down, tugging on Draco's hand. Draco sat down beside her.

It was dark in the stairwell, which was lit only by tentatively flickering flames on stands. "How was your dinner?" Ginny asked, aware - horribly aware - of how uncertain and pathetic her voice sounded. She wished savagely - well, she wished for many things.

Draco eyed her. "It was dinner."

Ginny wished she could slap him. She scowled at him. "What?"

Draco stood abruptly. "I don't want to talk about it."

Ginny respected that. She respected his right to not want to talk about certain things - in this case - God forbid she ask, dinner. She respected the fact that he was obviously feeling like a reticent toad.

She sat, looking at him. "All right."

"Good." Draco glanced around him cagily. "What are we doing here?"

"I wanted to be alone with you."

Draco finally smiled. 

Ginny felt her anxieties melt away. Finally. That was all she had wanted, one measly little smile. It wasn't really the smile that did her in, though. It was the insecurity in his eyes, the pleading for understanding, not to take his coolness seriously. It wasn't anything concrete, anything she could file away and dwell on later, but it was enough for now.

"Wanted to be alone?" Draco asked, pulling her close. He lowered his face and murmured, "I see."

They kissed.

And kept on kissing.

Ron scowled ferociously. Hermione rolled her eyes as she watched him scan the Gryffindor common room. _She _knew what he was looking for. He was looking for his sister. And he was scowling because he couldn't find her. Scowling because he _could _find Coy Connie and Fickle Fran. Scowling because that meant - presumably - that Ginny was off with Draco Malfoy. Scowling because he hated Draco Malfoy. Hermione felt like scowling herself.

She glanced at Harry. Harry was staring into space. He wasn't great company at the moment either. Over the last few days he'd been doing that a lot. Staring into space. He had to be _told _that Cho Chang was in the room. Something was bugging him. Hermione didn't feel like trying to work out what it was. It took all her energy trying to suppress Ron's barbaric urges whenever he saw Ginny with Draco Malfoy - whom he had mentally imbued with all the characteristics of a Satan-pig crossbreed species. 

Hermione looked across the room. Everyone _else _was having fun. Fred and George didn't seem to be wallowing in hot mud because their little sister was dating - God forbid - Draco Malfoy. They were laughing and apparently creating a new kind of quill. Or maybe it was a firecracker. Maybe both. Coy Connie and Fickle Fran were sitting together giggling. Even Neville Longbottom was talking to Parvati and he looked like he was enjoying himself. Hermione felt bad for even thinking it but if she was having less fun than _Neville Longbottom_, then something was seriously wrong. She heaved a sigh and picked up her Defence Against the Dark Arts book. Well, if she couldn't have fun, then she would study.


	6. Disturbingly Cute

A/N : Here it is. Please Review. (Note how I put Review in capitals, to signify how important that is?) I revise my plea. Please REVIEW.

Disclaimer : All characters and setting belong to JK Rowling. Or rather, her muse.

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Ron snuck a look at Hermione. On her face was the impatient look which had become more frequent lately. Her face was in a thick Defence Against the Dark Arts books which he doubted anyone in the school even knew existed. He looked over at Harry and smirked. The guy was thinking about Cho, as usual. So what else was new? He growled. Thinking about that made him think about Ginny. When he thought about Ginny, he thought about Draco. When he thought about Draco, he growled.

Hermione looked up and shot him a warning look. He recognized that warning look. It always appeared right after he growled and just before she bombarded him with a lecture about how he wasn't Ginny's keeper. He hadn't understood that term at first - it was apparently a Muggle term - but Harry had explained it to him after Hermione stomped off. Well, of course he wasn't Ginny's keeper. He was just trying to look out for her, was all. _He _knew, if no one else did, that a relationship between a Weasley - specifically a young female Weasley, unversed in the experiences of life, unlike himself - and a (he gave his customary shudder, as he always did when he thought the name) - _Malfoy _was doomed. Doomed.

Hermione was back to reading her book. Ron recognized that absorbed look on her face, and knew that whenever she was in that state, it was useless to suggest doing anything else. And Harry wouldn't be into doing anything if it didn't involve Quidditch or Cho. It was raining out, so Quidditch was ruled out. Cho had a Potions class, so Cho was ruled out. 

Ron heaved a sigh and went back to thinking about his sister. If he couldn't have fun he would brood.

Harrystared into space absorbedly. He was thinking. He was thinking of many things, but mostly he was torturing himself with the fact that Ginny had been crushing on him for _five _years - _five years_ - and during that time he had treated her like a little sister -_a little sister! _- and now that she was with Malfoy -_Malfoy! - _he thought of her as - well, not as a bloody little sister anyway.

He was also thinking of Cho Chang. He was beginning to realize that he didn't know that much about Cho Chang. Other than the fact that she was fairly pretty, played wicked Quidditch and was a year older than him. He hadn't gotten to know her much during the year after Cedric's death and now it was his sixth year and her seventh. She'd be leaving next year. And he still didn't know much about her. He wondered why he had liked her so much. Well, other than the fact that she was fairly pretty and played wicked Quidditch. 

Harry sighed unconsciously and went on staring into space.

"So?" Connie asked.

"What?" Ginny protested. She smiled when Connie gave her a knowing look. "No, I am not giving you any details."

Connie groaned and slumped back on the chair. "What's the fun of you dating - at _last _- if you won't tell us anything?"

"What do you want to know?" Fran asked with a smirk.

Connie ignored the smirk and focused on the question. "Well, at least tell us this - is he a good kisser?"

"How should she know?" Fran complained. "The only other person she ever kissed is Colin Creevey."

It was Connie's turn to smirk. "I kissed him once too. He's actually pretty good."

Fran looked interested. "Hmm. What's his rating?"

Connie kept on smirking. "Seven."

Fran snorted. "That's not pretty good. That's just above average."

Connie's smirk grew bigger. "On a scale of Eight."

Fran's eyes widened. 

"So how does he rate compared to Colin?" Fran asked, turning to Ginny.

Ginny grinned. "If Colin is a seven, then Draco is a nine and a half."

Fran laughed, a full, throaty laugh that made three Gryffindor boys look their way and focus on Fran wistfully. One of those, Ginny noticed, was her older brother Fred. She suppressed a smile as Fred noticed her watching him and turned bright red, his Weasley genes holding him in good stead. He turned away abruptly. 

Ginny looked across the common room at where her brother Ron was sitting with Hermione and Harry, who looked like he was staring into space. Ron caught sight of her and his tense face relaxed. Ginny's heart softened. He was being a pain in the arse, but he was her brother, and he had had some rather awful run ins with Draco. He was just trying to look out for her. And get in a punch at Draco. 

Now that Ron had ascertained that Ginny was in the room - ergo, not participating in perverted activities with the amazingly perverted Draco Malfoy - Ginny blushed at the thought of it; if Ron only knew- he turned back to Hermione and Harry and began playing a game of wizard chess with Hermione. Harry was still staring into space. Ginny allowed herself one savoury look at him and turned away. Her feelings for Harry were growing lesser everytime she kissed Draco. Everytime Draco reached for her hand simply as if it was an extension of his own. 

Everytime she thought of Draco.

Hermione ordered her pawn to move. It turned and gave her an are-you-serious-look, then when she nodded, it turned back to the board with a self-sacrificing look. With a heavy, tragic sigh it stepped forward and got slammed off the board by a particularly aggressive pawn of Ron's. Hermione didn't even mind that the rest of her chess pieces - what was left of them - were giving her accusing looks. She was just happy that Ron was finally doing something other than brooding over his sister. Maybe he would get over it soon.

Ron looked up from the board and glanced quickly at Harry, whose jaw was starting to hang open slightly. Hermione didn't know if he was surprised at something or if the energy needed to hold it closed was just too much for him. She didn't even care which it was. "What's up with him?' he asked Hermione in a low voice, adding, "And don't move that piece unless you want a total massacre."

Hermione looked quickly at the board. "What are you talking about? You couldn't massacre me!" She studied the board intently. "I think Harry is thinking about Cho." 

Ron snorted. "Just trust me. You're two steps away from a slaughter. Move that piece and it will become a massacre."

Hermione squinted at him suspiciously and defiantly moved the piece, since she couldn't think of any way he could make good on his confident promise. 

"I told you not to do that." Ron tsked, swiftly moving his Queen so that it trapped her King. "Checkmate. And I don't know what's wrong with Harry, but it's not Cho. She came over to talk to him yesterday and he almost totally ignored her other than staring at her for long periods."

"Staring at her?"

"Oh, it wasn't the lovesick staring _staring. _It was more like he couldn't quite understand who was sitting in front of her, and was trying to figure it out." Ron shrugged and began reassembling his men. "Another game?"

"Another slaughter, you mean?"

"Massacre." Ron corrected. For the first time in a long time, Hermione could see the immature guy who made rude jokes in the Ron that grinned at her cheekily. The angry, tense look was gone. "Well?' he challenged, grinning widely at her.

Hermione smiled back. His grin was contagious, it always had been to her. "All right." She laughed.

Ron liked Hermione's laugh. She was usually so controlled, so worried about abiding by the rules and making double straight A+ grades, but her laugh was different. It was in some ways, a very young laugh, in its abandon and gaiety. He let her have the first move - she needed it; she was the worst chess player that he'd ever come up against. She was even worse than Harry, and that was saying something. With only half his mind on the game, he let his gaze wander idly. First it went to Ginny, making sure she was still there and not the greasy clutches of that colourless greasebag Malfoy. Then it wandered over to Harry, who seemed to be trying to focus on the sky beyond the thick ceiling. Then it came to Hermione, who was bent in concentration. She was bent over so much that he could only see the top of her head. Her bushy brown hair was neatly combed, but other than that it flowed freely over her shoulders and onto the chess board. It reminded Ron some of Ginny's red curls, but Ginny's was less bushy. Besides, Ginny's had the carroty red colour characteristic of all the Weasley's, a colour Ron fervently hated. Hermione's colour was much better, it was a smooth glossy brown, just light enough to streak gold in very hot weather, which, since they lived in London, didn't happen.

Hermione finally moved her pawn tentatively and snatched it back when it gave her a _look. _She bit her lip. Ron found that action disturbingly cute. Very disturbingly. 

Harry kept on staring into space. He was still thinking.


	7. When Heroes Fall

A/N: The next part will be out eventually. Thanks for all the brilliant reviews. Review again?

Disclaimer : I _would_ say that I owned Coy Connie and Fickle Fran, but they only came into existence as pertains to Harry Potter and Co, so I relinquish all moral, intellectual and physical rights to JK Rowling. And muse.

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"I think Ginny's brother is looking at you again." Connie informed Fran.

Fran glanced at Ginny. "Don't worry." She told her, smiling and tossing her hair back in one uncongealed, liquid motion. It was a move she and Connie had agreed was one of the most basic motions every girl should know. They had a million such moves. They were planning to list them all down and write a book on it. They had asked Ginny to join them, but Ginny couldn't think of any such moves. She tried them out though. They didn't seem to work very well. Privately she thought that you probably needed to be born with the knowledge of how to execute them. Or born Connie or Fran. 

"I'm not going to put the moves on your brother." Fran assured Ginny. She chuckled. "Although he _is_ one cute wizard."

Connie giggled. "If they weren't your brothers we could double date with Fred and George." She speculated. "I wonder if they both kiss the same."

Ginny was glad her shock of red hair hid her rapidly reddening cheeks. "Would you stop talking about my brothers like some kind of s-s-sex toys?"

Fran laughed louder. "Shut up, Con, we're embarrassing Ginny."

Ginny hastily stood up. "It's okay. I've got a date with Draco now anyway." She shook back her hair and debated taking a comb to it. No, it wouldn't make any difference, and she'd end up with a broken comb in her hair. 

"I still wish you would tell us about Draco's kisses." Fran complained sulkily.

"I told you he was a nine-and-a-half, didn't I? What more do you want?"

"Fran wants details, like how his to-" Connie broke off at Ginny's _look._ "All right, all right. Toddle along. We won't do anything to entice your brothers while you're away."

"Not all of them, anyway." Fran added wickedly.

Ginny decided to go before her face turned any redder.

Draco lounged against the wall outside the Slytherin common room. He glanced up at the clock against the opposite wall and frowned. Ginny was ten minutes late. How long did it take to come from Gryffindor? He sighed and settled back into his position. Well, girls were always late. All except for Pansy. Pansy had never been late for a date in all the time they'd been dating.

Well speak of the brown haired devil and there she was, hurrying up the corridor, her head almost inside the bag she was holding, rummaging around for one of those infinitesimal small things girls always carried around, like lipstick or a toenail cutter. Well, except for Ginny. She didn't use make-up, and she definitely didn't carry around a toenail cutter.

Draco smiled lazily. Pansy had been the ideal girlfriend, obedient, eager to please and madly in love with him. Three very desirable qualities in a girlfriend. Draco frowned briefly when he thought of Ginny. She _liked _him very much, he knew, but he also knew that she still cared - however little - for that jackass Potter. That irritated him, and it also hurt. A lot. He pushed the thought away and focused on Pansy. She still hadn't seen him, and her head was still in her bag as she kept on hurrying up the corridor. It was a very long corridor.

When Pansy finally reached him, he stopped her with a "Hello."

Pansy looked up and blushed. She wasn't exactly pretty, but she wasn't ugly either. She was just plain looking, the kind of girl guys would take out as a last resort. It hadn't been that way with them, though. He had liked her, somewhat. It was impossible for anyone - or at least him - to like Pansy fully. There was really nothing to like. She was so eager to please that she agreed with him on every issue. That, combined with the fact that she dressed impeccably at school functions and was quite good in bed - as well as being enthusiastic and willing - had deemed her worthy enough to be his escort. He had also known that his parents would like - or at least approve of her. She was suitably wallpaperish. They had broken up because he had gotten bored. Wallpaper didn't entertain you for very long. He'd been fixing his sights on Sera Sanderson when he'd gotten involved with Ginny.

"Hello." Pansy squeaked, her face turning a deep shade of red. 

"Where are you hurrying off to?" Draco drawled, lifting an eyebrow.

Pansy shrugged awkwardly in an attempt to look casual. Draco found her efforts clumsily pathetic. "Nowhere. I was going to um- study with Jacker Drew."

"Jacker Drew." Draco sneered. "What a stimulating companion _he _is." Draco had always loathed him. He seemed to be a Gryffindor sympathizer. He had been one of the few Slytherins who had stood up for Cedric Whatever's death. 

Pansy blushed furiously. "He's just tutoring me in Potions."

Draco smirked, running a finger up her arm, drawing up her robe sleeve. "Why don't you just talk to me for a while." He kept on smirking when Pansy trembled. Not that he had any interest in Pansy, he just took a spiteful pleasure in making Jacker - who would name their son _Jacker, _for God's sake - wait for a girl who would clean his shoes if he asked her to. He didn't even have to ask politely.

"Um- all right." Pansy whispered. She looked around nervously. "Who are you waiting for -?"

Draco stiffened. He'd almost forgotten. He looked down the corridor. Ginny was coming up it, her pretty face as stiff as her movements. Draco took his hand away from Pansy's arm abruptly. "She's here." He said curtly. Without another word he moved down the hall as gracefully as a cat, taking Ginny's arm, which she pointedly took away.

She didn't speak until they were out in the sunshine. When you were at Hogwarts, there wasn't a lot of places you could go for privacy, unless you liked hanging around cold, dark dungeons. Draco settled for a tree. "You didn't see anything." He said, before she could say anything. He looked hard at her. "Nothing."

"Really." Ginny asked, her voice cold, so unlike it's usual happy warmth that Draco almost flinched. "And what would you have seen if you had seen me with Harry, with _his _finger running up and down my arm?"

Draco really did not want to picture that.

"Pansy and I are not the same as Potter and you." Draco said, just as coldly. "You didn't see anything. There is no reason for you to be jealous." But that was what she _was, _he realized dawningly. Ginny was _jealous. _She actually liked him enough to be _jealous. _Oh, more than liked. You had to have feelings slightly stronger than _like _to be _jealous. _Draco felt like italicizing the word for the rest of his life. A smile crept on his face and he took Ginny's hand teasingly. "_Were _you jealous, Ginny?" he breathed seductively, gently but strongly pulling her hand towards him. "Were you jealous when you saw me doing _this _to Pansy -" He ran his finger up her robes, exactly as he had done with Pansy, but this time he did it with feeling. This time he did it with the intention to make her shiver. This time he did it _trying. _His smile grew wider when Ginny shivered in the hot - well, lukewarm at least - sunshine.

"You _stupid git!" _Ginny said angrily, but her resolution was fading away. "Yes, I was jealous. Happy now?"

"Very much so." Draco assured her. "Now you know how I feel every time you sneak glances at Potter." 

"I don't sneak glances at him - not so much anymore, anyway." Ginny muttered. "And you know it, Draco Malfoy."

"Do I?" Draco asked, his face suddenly grim. "I wish -" _I wish you wouldn't sneak glances at him at all. I wish all your glances were at me. I wish you loved me like I love you. _His voice broke off and the expression on his face faded to a teasing smirk. He said, "Want to do something I _didn't _do to Pansy? While you were watching, anyway."

"Jerk." Ginny said laughingly, but she melted into his arms. Draco would have said she felt a lot better - a _lot _- better in his arms than Pansy had ever done; would have, that is, if he hadn't been doing something that left no energy for making comparisons.

Draco frowned briefly as he walked moodily back to the Slytherin common room. He adored kissing Ginny, it was rapidly becoming his favourite activity, right after looking at Ginny, thinking of Ginny, and holding Ginny. However, it did have some unfortunate side effects. Side effects that made him feel thankful that he didn't wear the ridiculous Muggle clothing trousers. Side effects that he couldn't satisfy because he loved Ginny - even if he hadn't admitted it to anyone - and didn't want to risk scaring her off by asking too much too soon. 

Draco made it back to the Slytherin common room and muttered the password - Mudblood Junior - and climbed deftly in. He slouched towards his favourite chair, his hands in his robe pockets, and slumped in it, not looking at Crabbe and Goyle, who were both struggling through a mound of homework. He should probably be doing some of that homework himself. Probably.

Pansy Parkinson simpered over, her eyes annoyingly eager and her lower lip trembling, ever so slightly. She probably thought that their encounter in the corridor earlier meant that he was about to take her back. Draco didn't really want to deal with an overenthusiastic ex-girlfriend right now. He didn't have the mood or the inclination. 

"Hey." Pansy said softly. She smiled waveringly. "Um - you finished your homework?"

Draco smirked. "No."

"You want me to help you with it?" Pansy volunteered happily. Oh goodie. He had just given her an opportunity to insinuate herself into his life again. Draco felt an inner smirk build up inside him. It was incurably cynical and mocking. Well, all right. He didn't mind. If she wanted to do his frigging homework for him, she bloody well could. He got up and gave her a slow, heavy look. 

"It's upstairs in my dorm." He said, still slouched over. "I'll go get it."

"I'll come with you." Pansy practically bounded up the stairs behind him.

Draco flung open his dorm door. He shared with Crabbe, Goyle, and another guy whose name he had never bothered to learn. He went over to his desk and rummaged around the mess of papers on it, all the while uncomfortably aware of the tightness in the region below his waist. Put bluntly, he was as horny as hell. He really needed a cold shower.

Finally. He extracted a few scraps of parchment and turned around to Pansy. His eyes widened, ever so slightly. Pansy was standing in the middle of the room, her robes unbuttoned to her waist. Her eyes were still annoyingly eager, but her smile was somewhat provocative. Only somewhat. "What the hell are you doing, Pansy?"

"I know that look you get when you're horny, Draco."

Draco eyed her. Ginny would never find out. No one in Slytherin House would tell her. She certainly wouldn't see it herself. He really, really loved Ginny, and he really, really didn't want to scare her off by demanding too much, too soon. And the way he was feeling right now, it was either take Pansy, or run all the way to the Gryffindor common room and rape Ginny. 

With a weary sigh, he nodded at the bed. "Take off your clothes and get in the bed."

Ginny hovered outside the Slytherin common room, feeling unsure of herself. She'd been sitting with Fran and Connie when Harry - who finally seemed to be out of his staring-into-space phase, came and sat with them. Ginny had been about to sneak glances at him when it hit her that she wasn't feeling anything. Well, anything other than surprise that he was there. Her heart wasn't beating faster. Her pupils weren't dilated. Her cheeks weren't red. She was finally over Harry Potter. He meant nothing. He _was _nothing. She thought of Draco. Her heart beat faster. Her pupils, she was sure, were dilated. Her cheeks reddened - she fervently hoped Harry didn't get the wrong idea. There it was then. It was staring at her right in her dilated - allegedly - pupils. She liked Draco. More than that. She was probably in love with Draco. She _was _in love with Draco. She _knew _him. Well, mostly, anyway. She _knew _the parts of him that mattered. She knew what mattered to him and what didn't. That's when she had gotten up, still staring, surprisedly, at Harry, and excused herself, walking dazedly out the Gryffindor common room. Well, she would have, straightaway, if she hadn't had to wait for someone to come in.

And here she was, waiting outside the Slytherin common room, for someone to come along, so she could go inside and tell Draco that she was over Harry Potter.

Fifteen minutes later, a Slytherin came along. Ginny vaguely recognized him. His name was Jack, or something. He looked at her hair. "Aren't you in Gryffindor?" he asked.

Ginny's hand flew up to her. The problem with it wasn't something that could be felt, though. It was the colour. The redness. Everyone knew the Weasleys were redhaired. Everyone knew the Weasleys were in Gryffindor. Since she was a redhead, she was a Weasley. Since she was a Weasley, she was in Gryffindor.

"_Please _let me in." she begged. "It's important. Or you could ask Draco to come out. It's important."

Jack - was that his name? - looked at her curiously. She realized who he was. Jacker Somebody. He was the kind of guy who you didn't think should have been put in Slytherin, but he had been, so obviously there was something Slytherinny about him. After a moment he nodded reluctantly. "All right. But if anybody asks, I don't know anything. Mudblood Junior."

At first Ginny thought he was calling her a name, and she crimsoned furiously, but the painting slid open with a curse, and she realized it was the password. 

Ginny followed him in. She walked over to Crabbe and Goyle. "Where's Draco?" she asked.

Crabbe eyed her but he wasn't smart enough to link Weasley redheadedness to Weasley Gryffindoriness. "He's in his dorm." He said in a remarkably deep, scratchy voice. He pointed. "Up through there."

Ginny skipped up the stairs before anyone else caught sight of her red hair. Jacker, she saw, was giving her wary looks and keeping the painting open. All right. She'd just drag Draco out and tell him outside. He wouldn't show it - for all he was her boyfriend, _her _wizard, he was still an arse - but he would be pleased. 

Ginny knocked on the door. Draco's lazy drawl floated out. "What the hell do you want?"

Ginny smiled at that typically hostile Draco greeting. "Can we talk?" she asked, pushing the door open. She kept on smiling, sure Draco would smile back at her. He was probably doing his homework. Or maybe he was changing robes. Or maybe he was just lying on his bed staring at the ceiling. Or maybe he was lying on his bed staring out the window.

She went in.

Maybe he was lying on the bed with his arm around a naked Pansy Parkinson.

Ginny froze. 

Draco's eyes flew fully open. 

_Oh God. Oh God. _Tears were already flowing out her eyes. _I thought he loved me. _

I thought I loved him.

Ginny backed away, feeling her way out the door, fiercely swiping at the tears in her eyes. She should have felt angry. She should have felt furious.

All she felt was pain.

Ginny ran. She ran out the Slytherin wing and into the corridors. She ran blindly until she got to the Gryffindor common room. And then she ran up to her bedroom. And then she stopped running and started crying. As she knew with a sickening certainty that she would be doing for a long time.


	8. Interlude Of Angst

AN: Terribly sorry that this installment took ages to come out. I just got back to school and it's been sheer pounding. I've been working and working and working and I was just too dead tired to even consider logging on. I guess the muse hasn't been too inspired lately either.

Thanks for all the reviews. A special thanks to the reviewer who reminded me that Draco's mother's name is Narcissa. I couldn't quite remember it. Review again?

Thanks to my faithful reviewers:

Disclaimer : All characters and setting belong to JK Rowling. 

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Draco sat up and swung his legs over the edge of the bed. He started to put on his robes, his movements quick and clumsy. His fingers were trembling and he kept thinking about the look on Ginny's face. The look of disbelief. The look of hurt. The look of pain. He tried not to think about it, but it was impossible. His heart was beating impossibly hard. His lips were trembling, and he had to blink hard. Belatedly he remembered Pansy and when he turned to face her it was with a look of such hatred on his face that Pansy recoiled, fear on her face. "Get out of here." He hissed through teeth clamped together. Hard.

He walked rapidly out of the dorm, willing himself to stay controlled. The painting was still open. He swung out and strode down the corridor. The walk down to the Gryffindor common room seemed long. It was probably short. He was shivering even in the well heated corridor. When he reached the common room, Neville Longbottom was just going in. He started to push Neville aside and climb in, but Neville waylaid him. His look was one of fearful defiance. "You're not supposed to go in here."

Draco sneered. "Who's going to stop me? You?"

"No." said a cold voice from inside. "I will." Ron stood there, looking at him with undisguised contempt. "I don't know what the hell happened between you and Ginny, but if you ever try to go near her again, I will punch you so hard -"

"Ron, stop it." Hermione said. On her face was exasperation and weariness. She nodded at Draco. Her face was firm. "Go away, Draco. You're not going to be getting in here. Not tonight."

Draco started to push past them, but Ron flung him out with a punch. It was a good punch. By the time Draco was able to stand up, the painting was closed. 

Draco just looked at it. With every moment that passed, his heart felt colder and colder, until the coldness spread to his entire body and he was shivering uncontrollably on the long trek back to the Slytherin common room.

Ginny looked dully at her textbook. She didn't see the words. All she saw was Draco. Draco with his arm around Pansy. Now he would never know that she had gotten over Harry. He would never know. 

The teacher was talking. Ginny wished he would stop. What was there to teach anymore? She had learnt all that was worth learning. What was she doing here? A blinding pain shot through her head. She had a headache. Probably due to the fact that she hadn't slept all night, Ginny thought with desperation. What was she _doing _here? She got up, stumbling slightly. "I'm sorry." She mumbled. "I don't feel well."

Professor McGonagall looked at her over glasses. "Go straight to Madam Pomfrey." She said briskly, turning back to her class after giving Ginny a piercing look. A fleeting look of sympathy passed over her face, but it was gone instantly.

Ginny walked slowly out of the classroom, but she didn't go straight to Madam Pomfrey. She walked aimlessly. She just needed to be alone for a while. Without thinking, she just kept on walking, until she reached an empty staircase. She sat down dizzily and looked at her hands.

She'd thought he loved her. He'd never said it, but she had thought so, in the way he touched her, in the way he looked at her, in the way he was _jealous. _She'd thought he respected her enough not to cheat on her. 

She'd thought many things.

Many wrong things. 

Ginny stood. She tripped on the edge of her robes, and caught quickly at the stair banister. It was a long way to the bottom.

She steadied herself and got off the stairs.

Draco waited in the Hall, his hand clenching and unclenching the goblet he held. He was looking for her. He saw Potter and friends. He couldn't even summon up a nasty thought. Where the hell was she?

Then she came in, with her friends. All three of them were uncharacteristically quiet. Ginny was in the middle, but she was looking at the floor hazily, as if she didn't really see it. Her friends were looking warily at her. Ginny looked so _young. _So fricking young. So fricking lost. He stood abruptly and strode over to her. They _had _to talk. He would tell her about Pansy. He would explain. His heart clutched tight in his chest, and he was reminded of his father's many silent, subtle reminders. _Never show emotion. _It was a weakness, a weakness for freaks like Potter. Voldemort didn't like emotion. Not emotions other than fear and hate. 

He came up to her. "Can we talk?"

Ginny recoiled. She didn't say anything, but her face whitened. Connie and Fran discreetly melted away. Well, Connie discreetly. She had to tug on Fran's arms once or twice. "There's nothing to talk about." She said quietly.

Draco growled. "There's plenty to talk about. You saw something that didn't mean anything."

Ginny looked up and faced him and on her face was a startling whiteness more alarming than any of her blushes. She flinched when he reached out to touch her. It was as if she couldn't stand his touch now that he had touched Pansy. That hurt. Draco had always known that many of the Gryffindors considered him filth. He didn't give a damn. But for Ginny, _Ginny_, to recoil from his touch, like _she _considered him filth - "That's what you said yesterday." She said, her voice trembling and fluctuating. "You said that to me when I saw you in the corridor with her. You _told _me that there was nothing to be jealous about. You _lied _to me."

"I didn't fucking lie to you!" Draco said desperately. "I didn't! It doesn't mean anything. I was horny. I couldn't sleep with you. She came on to me. It happened like that. I swear, Ginny, I _swear _that it meant nothing. It has nothing to do with you and me."

"I don't care." Ginny said, rubbing her arms, not looking at him. "You don't do that - you don't just _sleep _with someone - when you're supposed to be dating someone else." She let out a sob, and a small hand flew to her mouth, and she started shaking her head. "I was going to tell you that I was completely over Harry! I was going to tell you that I loved you! Then to find you there, with someone else!" She started backing away, tears seeping down over her cheeks. "Stay away from me. Stay away from me."

"No, I will not fucking stay away from you." Draco said distinctly. In his belly was a growing feeling of alarm. Maybe it wouldn't be all right after all…

Maybe she wouldn't listen…

Maybe there would never be a _you and me _again…

_I loved you…_

I was completely over Harry…

All these past tenses.

"Ginny, _please_." He wasn't begging yet, but he would be soon. At that thought Draco felt a clutch more potent than his alarm, his pain, his fear. A clutch that had nothing to do with his feelings for Ginny and everything to do with his pride.

Since he'd first fallen in love with this girl, his pride had taken enormous beatings.

_Can it take another one? _

Ginny was swiftly composing herself. She had pride too, this girl. _His _girl. She wanted to come back to him, he could see that, in the softened look in her pain stung eyes, in the different way she held herself, quietly tense. She had always been able to read him, and he knew now that she knew what it meant for him to come to her this way, to almost-beg. Two things were warring in her, the image of him with Pansy and the image of him almost-begging. Pride against love. Pain against pleasure. 

"Ginny -"

Confusion.

"Ginny - "

Why couldn't he say anything?

He wanted it to be over.

He loved her.

He hated her.

He -

He didn't know. 

He just didn't fucking _know!_

He wanted her back. That much he knew. 

Ginny looked at him. Her mouth opened, the sweet red mouth he had kissed so often. "I don't know." She stammered. Her voice cracked, as if she hadn't spoken for a while. "I don't know, Draco. I want to, but I -"

"You need time to think." Draco said, calming himself. His voice grew cool. "I'll wait, Ginny." He voice grew cooler. "But not for too long."

Ginny looked at him, just looked at him, and he knew then that she saw that he really was the son of Lucius Malfoy. Lucius Malfoy as she knew him. He knew it even as his back became straighter and the tilt of his chin prouder, and he knew it as surely as he knew that his actions, minute as they might be, were pushing her away.

_I love you. _The thought, unbidden and desperate, rose to his lips and he spoke them as if in a dream. Ginny looked at him again, but he couldn't bear the honest pain in her eyes. He couldn't bear the fact that she had flinched from his touch. 

He couldn't bear the fact that she went to sit down, after gently laying a hand on his robes, with Connie and Fran. He couldn't bear the fact that Potter and her idiot brother pulled up their chairs and sat next to her.

He couldn't bear the fact that _he _had driven her to it.

"I wish she would tell us what happened." Ron said quietly. His brown eyes were anxious as he looked sadly at his Potions homework and then at the quiet figure of Ginny as she sat by the fireplace in a pose similar to that Harry had recently adopted. Hermione felt a pang of sympathy, both for Ron and for Ginny. It was obvious that whatever had happened had been harrowing for Ginny. It was equally obvious that Ron was genuinely hurt that his baby sister wouldn't confide in him. It was also obvious that Ron sympathized deeply with her and was pained that Ginny was pained. 

The whole Draco-Ginny affair had cast a pall over the whole Gryffindor common room. Like Ron, Fred and George, - contributing normally 75% to the Gryffindor noise level - were sitting, subdued, every so often casting beseeching looks at Ginny.

Hermione felt a sudden pang - she was getting a lot of sudden pangs lately - of envy towards Ginny. Certainly if she, Hermione, had broken up with someone, the only people who would have noticed were Harry and maybe Ron. Not that she wanted to be hurt as much as Ginny had, but she wanted to know that if she _had, _people would actually have noticed and - was it too much to ask - _cared!_

"She'll tell you when she -" Harry stopped and started over. "She'll tell you when she _can, _you know? When she - well, when she _can! _You know."

Amazingly articulate. Hermione thought sarcastically and berated herself for it. She looked curiously at Harry. There was a feverish look about him. His jet black hair was ruffled wildly - well, more wildly than usual, then - and his eyes were bright and, well, _bright. Feverishly _bright. Well, she was being amazingly articulate herself, wasn't she?

Ron nodded sagely, as if that speech of Harry's had made sense. Maybe it actually had, in Ronworld. "I know." He said mournfully. "But I still wish she would tell us what happened."

Hermione didn't know which was worse, Ron raging over Ginny, or Ron mooning over Ginny.

_I wish Ron would just get a life of his _own!

She cast a glance at Fred and George, who were still looking meek. 

_Maybe it's a Weasley thing._

It had better _be a Weasley thing._

Ginny was thinking.

She loved Draco.

She had been hurt by Draco.

She was afraid to get back together with Draco in case he hurt her again.

She was afraid to not get back together with Draco because she loved Draco.

That, was Ginny Weasley's problem, in a nutshell.

A particularly big nutshell, but a nutshell nevertheless.

Ginny sighed. It seemed to her, at the moment, that she _had _to get back together with Draco. Already she missed him, missed the warm - and frequently hot - presence, the guy she had, God Help Her, come to love.

But not just yet.

She had to get over the memory of seeing him with Pansy first.

A pain shot through her.

Maybe not just-in-a-long-while yet.


	9. Two Girls, One Guy - The Eternal Catfigh...

AN: Well, here it is. The long struggled over installment. I'll tell you, I got stuck halfway through this and couldn't think of a way to restart it. You'll probably be able to spot the place that I got stuck in. It kind of sticks out (semi-pun, semi-pun). Oh, I do adore writing these author notes. I'll probably be able to whip out the next installment quickly enough, now that I have a fresh slate to begin on. I love all the reviews. I do note the people who have reviewed all my fics, and one of these days I'll write up a list. In the meantime, review again?

Disclaimer : Characters and setting belong to JK Rowling.

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Pansy lay on her bed stiffly, looking at the ceiling. She had pasted a picture of Draco there, but she wasn't really seeing it. 

Why didn't he love her?

She could still remember him making love to her - she refused to think of it as just sex, because it _wasn't, _not when it was with Draco - and she shivered at the memory. Draco was a wonderful lover. More than that she loved the way his arms felt around her after they had finished, and they were lying together. You didn't stay with a person after you had just made love unless you loved them. Unless you respected them. Unless you moderately _liked _them!

Then she could remember the look on his face, the naked pain and horror, when Ginny had fled after finding them together. In all their time together, in all of their time together, he had never, never, so much as shown an emotion deeper than cold amusement. That hurt.

She loved Draco. She loved him so much she dreamt of him at night and fantasized about him by day. And now he was in love with the worst person for him, that Gryffindor slut Ginny. Ginny Weasley. That hurt even more.

But Pansy wasn't stupid. She knew Draco's parents would never approve of the match. Draco would never be allowed to stay with Ginny. By fair means or foul, Draco's parents - Draco's _father, _to be exact, would get rid of the Ginny problem. And then Pansy would step in. Pansy was perfect for Draco. She had made certain of that.

Pansy wasn't stupid. In her years together with Draco, she had struggled to be the perfect girlfriend. In her cause, she had struggled to emulate Draco's mother, Narcissa. Narcissa was perfect for Lucius. She had given him the respectability he had needed to remain part of the wizarding community while also being a Death Eater - not an easy thing to do. _Definitely _not an easy thing to do. Narcissa was also purposefully vague. So purposefully that Pansy wasn't sure if it was just an act anymore.

So all Pansy had to do now, was wait for the cards to fall, the wands to break.

And when they did, Pansy would be ready.

No, Pansy wasn't stupid.

______________________

Draco stared straight out in front of him. He was alone, sitting in a dark stairwell. He liked the dark. 

The dark was soothing. Unlike many wizard kids, Draco had never been afraid of the dark. He had always welcomed it. The dark was like a bolt of black silk draping softly and silently over him, blacking out everything else. You were never hurt when you were sleeping. You couldn't feel pain when you were sleeping. Dreams, for Draco, had always been swift and fleeting. He had never been able to remember a single dream he had had. He liked it that way. Draco supposed that he associated unpleasant things with light. He didn't really care to examine _why _he felt like he did. Over-analysis had never been a problem for Draco.

Draco thought of Ginny. He had done that almost constantly over the past few days. The teachers didn't seem to notice. The teachers seemed to be preoccupied, probably with some new Voldemort mishap, Draco thought. He would have sneered, but he was too tired. This whole Ginny issue had tired him out, to the point where he would have done anything for it to be over. For it to be over the way _he _wanted it to. For Ginny to come back to him.

He loved her, he really did. She was the only person in the world who could make him laugh and cry, smile and want to please.

She was the only person who made him feel like he did in the dark.

He didn't know why he loved her. Dispassionately thinking about it, he knew that she was quite possibly the worst person he could ever love. All other things aside, their families hated each other. Draco himself hated all the Weasleys with a passion. Well, except one. They stood for everything he despised. Poverty. Ill manners. Vulgarity. And he knew perfectly well that his father would love a chance to string Arthur Weasley up on a pole and cut off his genitals. Arthur Weasley would also, in return, love a chance to shut his father up in Azkaban. 

But he loved her. 

Despite the fact that he loved her, he was still the same Draco Malfoy he had been before he had fallen in love with her. She hadn't changed him, hadn't tried to change him. He still hated her brothers and Potter and Granger. He hated Mudbloods. And she, too, had not changed. It was as if their love was on a different plane from all these things, as if it remained untouched and uninfluenced by these matters. It was separate from the world they knew.

He _loved _her.

He didn't know when he had started. He had known her for five years, and in all that time she had been nothing more and nothing less than another Weasley. 

She was beautiful. No, not beautiful, if he was honest with himself, which was hard to do when Ginny was the subject. She was pretty. She was lazy. She was . . .

What was the point? She was Ginny, and he loved Ginny. 

Come what may, she was Ginny, and Lord Voldemort help him, he loved her.

________________________

Hermione was fed up. She was sick of being Hermione. No, she was sick of being the Hermione whom everyone ignored except to ask for help for homework. "Just two more inches, Hermione!" "_Please _Hermione, we've only got ten minutes left before potions!" "Hermione, can you tell me how to -" "Hermione, why is this -' "Hermione -"

HERMIONE HERMIONE HERMIONE.

Hermione reflexively clamped her hands over her ears, despite the fact that the voices were all in her head. Sheepishly she lowered them and smiled weakly at Ron, who was looking at her curiously. Once she had signaled that she was all right, Ron lapsed back into Ronland, where the starring roles went to Ginny Weasley and Draco Malfoy. And in the background, Hermione Granger. 

_The stupid git doesn't even know I'm crushing on him._

The stupid git doesn't know anything _unless it has to do with Ginny and Draco._

Hermione was beginning to hate the names Ginny and Draco. Oh, not on their own, of course. Just together. She'd never had any problems when Ginny was just Ginny and not part of a unit which consisted of her and Malfoy. And if Malfoy on his own was bad, Malfoy with Ginny was a dozen times worse. Maybe even two dozen. Maybe even _three _-

But that line of thought was getting her nowhere.

Harry was still looking feverishly active. His knee was bouncing up and down on the floor at a speed that dizzied Hermione. She didn't mistake the fact that his eyes kept straying to where Ginny was sitting with Connie and Fran, either. Obviously he was now crushing on Ginny. Great timing. Hermione felt a sudden, inexplicable urge to -

To what?

To hit something. To scream. To do something to make Ron _notice _her!

Hermione heaved a heavy sigh, gave Ron an unusually dirty look and turned to a heavy Transfiguration book. If she couldn't hit something, she would study.

___________________________

Fred fidgeted slightly. "I'm going to go over and talk to Ginny." He said abruptly.

His twin gave him a knowing look. "Ginny or Fran?"

Fred scowled. "Don't be an eejit. Ginny, of course."

Fred stomped off. He nervously smoothed down his hair, a fact which didn't escape George.

"Eejit." He said out loud, smirking. "Right."

__________________________________

Ron wished Fred would stop making cow's eyes at Fran. Fran was obviously stringing him along. The smile on her face was knowing and the spark in her eyes was smug. It was as if she already _knew _that she had snared Fred in her promiscuous web of promises. She probably did know. Of course she knew. Ron snorted in disgust. He looked at his little sister, who was looking at them, a faint smile on her tired face - he'd never seen her look so tired before - and his heart melted. It was the first smile he'd seen on her face in a long time. Well, in a _week_, anyway. If Fred making a fool out of himself over her friend made her smile, then he was all for it. Hell, he was all for _anything _that made Fred make a fool out of himself. Fred was usually on the giving end of that line, not the receiving one. 

He looked at Hermione, who was - surprise, surprise - neck deep in a huge book that looked as if it had been in a box for years. He could only see the top of her head, and for the second time, he admired the glossy sheen of her hair. Healthy hair, and a lot of it. Hermione looked up briefly and caught him looking at her. He flushed, embarrassed, even if she was just his friend. Hermione looked at him for a second. She seemed slightly disconcerted, but unwilling to pull her eyes away from his.

So they stared at each other.

It wasn't like all the other times they'd looked at each other, but Ron knew - well, he thought he knew anyway - that he'd never looked at her in quite this way before. As if there was something meaningful in the look. As if they were looking at each other as equals, and Ron realized something with a jolt.

Something he'd realized long ago, at the Yule Ball Victor Krum had taken Hermione to.

Something he couldn't remember how he had forgotten.

__

Hermione was a girl. 

Now _that _was a jolt in the stomach. 

For the first time in a long time, Ron couldn't think about Ginny. All he could think about was tearing his gaze away from this - this _girl._

______________________________

Is this actually happening? Hermione kept on staring at him. Whatever was happening, she wasn't about to be the one to pull away.

______________________________

__

"He kisses like a - words defy me." Fran said as she slumped into a chair after a suspiciously long disappearance after their last class of the day. She looked, Connie thought, like a cat. A satisfied cat. Her face wore the patented Fran I-got-some look. 

"In a good or a bad way?" Connie asked, after sneaking a glance at Ginny to make sure she wasn't listening. Ginny could be so prudish about her own brothers. Connie supposed that she didn't blame her. Much. It would be kind of like wondering what it would be like to kiss your uncle. Or your father. 

Connie blanched and quickly turned her thoughts away. She focused on Fran, who was stretching luxuriously. Connie caught sight of Fred, who was just coming in the portrait. He looked glazed over, like a doughnut that's lost all it's filling; still looks good from the outside, but you still know that something's missing. In Fred's case, Connie thought with a smirk, the thing missing was probably about three gallons of saliva. 

Fran laughed in the way only Fran could laugh. "In a gooooood way." She practically purred. Scratch that. She _was _purring. Connie laughed. 

"When are you meeting him again?" Connie asked.

Fran smiled lazily. "Whenever I can."

Connie whistled. "He must have been pretty good."

Fran leant forward confidingly. "Honey, on a scale of one to eight, he's an eighty."

Connie laughed again. "Wonder if George kisses like him?" She exchanged knowing looks with Fran.

Suddenly Ginny spoke. Connie jumped guiltily, but realized Ginny wasn't talking about Fred and George. "I'm going to get back together with Draco." She said clearly.

Connie exchanged alarmed looks with Fran. "Ginny, are you sure?" She knew it wasn't any use asking, though. Ginny never said anything she wasn't sure about. Well, Connie was wise enough to know that interfering with your friend's love life - even if she _was _your best friend and about as experienced as an unopened can of soda - was the kiss of death to a friendship.

Fran said nothing. Typical.

"Yes." Ginny said, her eyes clear for the first time in - well, in the time since she'd broken up with Draco. Connie still didn't know all the details. She doubted she ever would. Ginny could be exasperatingly proud sometimes. And something that had hurt her that badly - it would probably stay between her and Draco. And the chick Draco had hooked up with, whoever she was.

Ginny stood. "I'm going to go tell him."

Connie hugged her. "All right."

Fran smiled, a genuine smile, not the I'm-gonna-bite-your-tongue-out-and-you're-gonna-like-it smile she gave to boys. "You know I'm behind you, honey."

Ginny smiled, and laughed, and she looked young again. She turned to walk away and then turned again. "And girls?"

"Yes?" they chorused. God, that was dorky.

"Stop talking about my brothers like they're sex toys."

Connie had the good grace to blush. Fran just laughed louder than ever.

____________________

Ginny ran down the hallways. She slowed down when she saw Draco's back, silhouetted in the stone doorway. He was standing - probably brooding, she thought with an inner laugh born of giddiness - facing the sunlight, so his back was a canvas of darkness. She started running again, as quietly as possible, and then she flung herself at his back, almost bowling him over. She would have, if he hadn't been holding onto the wall. He swore, and she laughed. 

"Ginny?" he asked, his shock and apprehension visible. Oh, how she loved him, Ginny thought, taking in his beloved face, worn, but still wearing the mask of arrogance that was a part of him. The soft white-blonde hair. The hard set of the chin. 

"No, not Ginny." She said, hugging him tightly. She pulled back slightly and smiled at him. "_Your _witch."

And then she kissed him. 

Things weren't perfect, but they were as perfect as they could be.


	10. Now I Know

AN: I feel the beginning of an actual plot coming up, involving Lucius and Voldemort as well as Harry and Co. I've made the decision to stop this story in five more installments, so "Its Like That" Part Fifteen will be the last installment. Happy Reading. Dare I say, Happy Reviewing? Thanks to all my reviewers especially Jessica for reviewing all my work. =) Review again? One more thing: a lot of you told me that Part nine in roman numerals is XI not VIIII. I say in my defense: I was taught that way as a kid. 

Disclaimer:

**If you feel the urge or need,**

**To satisfy your ugly greed,**

**Do not sue me, myself or I,**

**Because I hereby clarify,**

**I own neither characters nor setting,**

**Like, Duh! They belong to JK Rowling.**

_____________________________________

Lucius Malfoy sat at his desk in his study. He leant back contemplatively in his chair, a big black affair, which would have dominated many another man. But then, Lucius wasn't just any man, now was he? Lucius' lips curled at the thought, as if at some private joke. 

No, not many men brought up their sons to be Death Eaters.

His study was typically spacious, almost cavernous, with the high, bare stone ceiling, held up with a few spells and the tremendous wills of all the previous Malfoys. Lucius liked space. It contradicted the teeming soul-prison he was trapped in. 

Lucius looked at the picture of his son which he had on his desk. His son was standing with his wife, lovely, dimwitted Narcissa. Anyone looking at the picture, on the immaculate desk, would have thought that the picture occupied a somewhat obligatory space, as if the owner had only put it there for respectability's sake, and not for any love he bore the people in the picture. It was conspicuously polished, in a rather ostentatious frame that Lucius hated.

The people who thought that would have been wrong. 

Lucius looked impassively at the picture. Not by a blink of the heavy eyelids, not by a twitch of the stern mouth did he betray the overwhelming love and guilt he felt when he looked at it.

The Draco of the picture stood completely still, his eyes dark and hidden, as if he strove to make his father proud of him even there. It reminded Lucius of all the times Draco had looked up at him with half-concealed begging for approval and he had returned the look with an icy denial of his own. The Narcissa of the picture, in stark contrast, in white lacy robes and no makeup on her fair, high bred, delicate face, the only resemblance between them the eyes and the haughty tilting of the head, flitting around the picture with deft, fragile movements of the small slim hands.

Lucius thought back over his past. He had become a Death Eater in haste, and had repented it at leisure, as the old Muggle saying went. From the very beginning he had known what Lord Voldemort would do if he knew of Lucius' flagging loyalty. He would seek to destroy him, and everything he cared about. From the very beginning, Lucius had learnt to hide his emotions and conceal what he loved. For all anyone knew, he thought nothing of his son and wife. Nothing could be further from the truth.

But then, he was a fine one to talk about truth.

Lucius had never been stupid. If Lord Voldemort thought Lucius didn't give a damn about his family, then he wouldn't seek to destroy him through them. Draco and Narcissa would be safe. 

Leaving Voldemort had never been an option.

From the day he became a Death Eater, his fate had been sealed.

Lucius knew all too well what happened to Death Eaters who deserted.

Like Severus Snape.

They were put on Lord Voldemort's blacklist.

And of all the thousands of people who had ever been put on Voldemort's blacklist, only three remained uneliminated.

Harry Potter.

Albus Dumbledore.

Severus Snape.

So Lucius had sealed off any betrayal of feeling. He had trained himself well. Not by any reckless gesture would he _ever _betray his feelings. His true feelings.

He'd paid a price. He 'd sealed himself off so well that he became colder and colder every year, until every sensitivity was gone, the last one a desperate, clinging thing that was the only thing he cared about. 

He'd paid a heavy price.

Narcissa no longer loved him.

Draco had never loved him.

But it was a bargain he never regretted.

Better they hated him than they were dead.

Well, that was what he told himself anyway.

Ginny sat by herself in the Gryffindor common room, absentmindedly sticking together a few pieces of parchment, unknowingly ruining Connie's long slaved-over Care Of Magical Creatures essay. She was smiling faintly to herself, staring glazedly into space as her hands moved slowly and deliberately. This despite the fact that Connie and Fran had reneged on their plan to meet after classes for a walk. Without telling her in advance. They had mysteriously disappeared from the Gryffindor common room, as well. But Ginny was in such a good mood that even the fact that Fred and George were also missing didn't have an effect on her.

Well, not _much _of an effect, anyway. 

Ginny pushed away the disturbing - very disturbing - thought of Fred and George with Fran and Connie with an effort and thought about something else. The first thought that came to mind was Draco.

The second thought that came to mind was Draco.

The third thought that came to mind was Draco.

And Draco. And Draco and Draco and Draco and Draco.

The faint smile turned into a distinctly satisfied smile, basic and feminine. She replayed Draco's feverish avowals of love the night before in her head. She could hear his voice, low and rough, feel his hot breath on her neck, and see the look in his eyes. The surprise, the hope, the joy. 

Ginny's smile grew more feminine. It was a smile only a female could smile.

Deep in the back of her mind was the reminder, hidden but bitter, of Draco with Pansy. Ginny knew she would be called a fool - by her brothers, by her friends, by everyone who knew of the Ginny-Draco saga. 

But she didn't care.

* * Not _much _anyway.

She loved Draco. There was no getting around that. It had been a supreme blow to her pride - oh, the Weasleys had that in full measure - but she could deal with that.

She thought she could.

It had hurt.

She had been jealous.

The jealousy had been the worst part. It had been overwhelming, making her squirm at night, making her restless, making her want to weep with rage and frustration, everything storming up within her, until she wanted to twist and turn to get away from it. But she couldn't.

Ginny frowned slightly, but pushed the old echoes of jealousy away, as she had always tried to. She blocked it out of her mind, purposefully thinking of something else. Thinking of the way Draco had kissed her, with surprise and desperation, his hands clutching tight on her arms, not letting her go.

Ginny smiled again.

Harry pulled up a chair and looked at Ginny. She looked slightly thoughtful, as if she was thinking about something else even as she looked at him with polite surprise. Harry's heart fell. There had been a time when her cheeks would have turned red and her hands would have fluttered to each other, as if struggling for supremacy in her lap. Now her cheeks were as pale as only a red-headed person's can be, and her hands were purposefully sticking together what looked to be an old essay. "Hi." He said awkwardly.

"Hello." Ginny said simply. She looked at him. "Where are Ron and Hermione?"

Harry's first impulse was to say, _Don't group me with them, dammit! _And so, like the stupid teenage wizard he was, he said it. He caught himself toward the end, omitting the _dammit._ He smiled weakly. "I mean, - "

Ginny looked at him strangely, almost - God forbid - _pityingly_. There was an awkward pause, and then, in an obvious attempt to make him feel better - which naturally just made him feel worse - she said hesitantly, "I know what you mean. It used to frustrate me when people just referred to me as Ron's little sister -" obviously realizing that Harry had been -_been_ - one of those people, she backtracked - "I er- got over it eventually."

Harry nodded inanely. "Erm - yea."

They sat in silence for a while, Ginny's red head bent over the essay she was mutilating. "So, how are things?" Harry finally asked, wishing he was somewhere else. He had a fleeting thought - _is this how love is supposed to be? Me not knowing what she wants? Is Ginny just another Cho?_ He banished the thought, although it shocked him somewhat. He thought about it, forgetting what he had asked. Ginny wasn't another Cho, and he knew it with a core certainty that shocked him even more. He _knew _Ginny, he knew what she was like with her friends, he knew what she was like with her brothers, he just knew _her. _

Or maybe he was in denial. 

It was possible.

Most things were.

Ginny looked at him. "Um -" she looked down again quickly. "Well. I got back together with Draco."

Harry looked at her.

Ginny didn't look at him.

"You -_what_?" Harry asked quietly.

"I got back together with Draco." Ginny said. She shrugged in a pseudo-casual move, that just came off as defiant and uncertain. "Listen, don't tell Ron yet, all right? I don't want him throwing another fit -"

"He will." Harry said with a short laugh. "No, I won't tell Ron." _I won't tell anyone. _He could have added, the pain in his heart making him not quite know what he was doing. It was as if he was detached - all his feelings for Ginny stored in a little compartment along with his feelings for everything else. _I especially won't tell me._

"What made you break up with him in the first place?" Harry asked, almost dully.

Ginny wouldn't look at him, and her hands started working slightly faster. "Nothing, really."

Harry knew what that meant.

He got up. 

This pain - he hadn't felt this much pain when Cho had gone with Cedric to the Yule Ball.

He hadn't felt this much pain when he'd seen Cedric die.

He'd never felt this much pain.

He looked down at Ginny's head and felt an unbelievable tenderness suffuse over him, making him feel heavy and softly sad. No pain, no stinging at his heart. Just an unbearable soft sadness that made him lean over and gently kiss her on the forehead.

He whispered something, maybe she didn't catch it.

It didn't matter.

He had said it.

Ron was furiously shaking his wand. "Why won't it work?" he stormed angrily. Hermione, watching, rolled her eyes. 

"Maybe it's not your wand." She said.

"Maybe it's not your wand!" Ron mimicked, growling as he shook it furiously. Hermione narrowed her eyes at him.

"What _could _it be, then?" Ron demanded, pointing the wand at her. "Godammit, Hermione, don't just stand there looking at me like that! I _have _to learn this spell!"

Hermione scowled at him. "Stop yelling at me! It's not my problem you don't know which end of the wand to hold!"

Ron turned a deep magenta. It was rather surprising how purple he got in such a short time. "Don't make me angry right now, Hermione. What with Ginny being in such a funk and her two friends spiriting my brothers off -"

Hermione kept on scowling. "_Don't make me angry right now, Hermione_-" she mimicked in return. _How low I have stooped. _"What with Ron being such a jerk and Harry being in a coma -"

Ron let out a yowl of frustration and slammed the thick book shut, making a book-fly screech out of the book in a flurry of dust and assorted insects. He pointed the wand at Hermione, shaking in fury. "I THOUGHT YOU WERE GOING TO HELP ME!"

"I THOUGHT YOU HAD A BRAIN!"

Ron picked up the book and looked ominously at her. "That does it, Hermione Granger!"

"How cheesy." Hermione sneered. She knew she was being mean. She was already ashamed of herself. Her brain told her to stop. Her hormones told her to duke it out. "_That does it_?"

Ron turned purple again. Regally he swept his wand into his sleeve and swept out of the room. At the door he turned around - another cheesy move- and said in a calm voice that belied the vein throbbing in his chin, "I am going to study by myself, and I am going to beat you in the next Charms test." 

"I am going to hit you by myself and I am going to beat you into the ground!" Hermione screeched, flying at him, robes pushed back, wand arm out. Luckily, he managed to duck as she sent a binding curse at him and before she could try another curse, he fled down the corridor.

Hermione collapsed at a desk, the adrenaline slowly diffusing out of her bloodstream. She looked in horror at herself, the dusty robes, the tingling wand, and swallowed in her hoarse throat. "What have I become?" she moaned tragically, slumping at the desk amidst a pile of brown curls.


	11. And Then There Were None.

AN: First off, I'm not Singaporean or Malaysian. Getting close though, very very close. One thing - no, Harry is not going down the dark path. I realize Ron and Hermione are moving really slowly, but that's just how I envision them. I don't really have anything to say but THANK YOU to all my reviewers. Another person I'd like to thank is Static - whom due to Satan's influence I forgot to mention - because I love all her reviews. And Kei - who paid me the ultimate compliment - thank you so much. I'm going to compile a list someday. Really. Till then, Chocolate is Good, Ice Cream is Good, Reviews are Good. 

Disclaimer: All characters and setting belong to JK Rowling. For now.

___________________________

Ginny gripped Draco's hand tightly, unconsciously, as if she wasn't aware of it. Draco looked up and a slight frown dotted his expressionless face. Harry Potter was walking their way, hands stuffed into robe pockets, head bent. He was alone - surprisingly enough - and he didn't seem to be aware that he was about to collide with them. Draco didn't intend to awaken that awareness. He shifted slightly, so that they were walking away from Harry. He looked at Ginny, and the frown became more distinct. Her red head was bent in a pose identical to Potter's. 

"Is something wrong?" Draco inquired, the very picture of concern. Outwardly, anyway. _The Malfoy indifference._

Ginny looked up and smiled weakly, her eyes straying to Potter, who was trudging along, his slender body drooped and his black hair a mess. As usual. She looked back at Draco. "No." She hesitated. Then repeated again, "No."

Draco raised an eyebrow. "I see." He said.

They walked in silence. Draco wondered why they were walking. He hated exercise of any sort, and the sun often burned him even when he was only out for a few minutes. _The Malfoy skin._ His mother often said, with the tinkling, half-mad laugh that Draco hated. "Can we sit?" he asked, somewhat plaintively.

Ginny pulled him under a tree and cast an anxious look at his nose. She didn't say anything, though, and just looked at him, not lovingly or adoringly, but impersonally, as if she was looking at his features and not him. "What?" Draco asked, picking up one long curl and pulling it out so that it seemed straight. The sunlight rippled off the ruddy redness of it and Draco appreciated the effect. His mother had taught him to appreciate beauty. His father had taught him to crush it. 

"I like looking at you." Ginny replied simply. "You are very handsome."

Draco laughed and gave her a kiss. "Of course." He said smugly. "I have the Malfoy looks."

Ginny laughed and narrowed her eyes at him. "You vain thing."

"It's not vanity." Draco said, even more smugly. "It's just true."

Ginny laughed again. Her face grew pensive, and Draco didn't think she was aware of the fact. There was something wrong - she had been absorbed all day, but she didn't seem inclined to tell him about it. And from the way her grip on him had tightened when she caught sight of Potter - Draco didn't know - with a clenching of his heart - if he wanted to know.

_____________

Lucius Malfoy looked at Lord Voldemort, who was sitting across from him in the cavernous room, his long fingers steepled under a sharply cut chin. "I don't like thisss." Voldemort said, his tones, as always, sounding faintly reminiscent of a snake. He turned the picture of Lucius' wife and son around and regarded them through cold red slits. "I have heard disssturbing reportss of your boy."

Lucius didn't blink. His face remained unmoving. "If you mean," he said, slowly and deliberately, "The reports of him dating the Weasley whore - they are perfectly correct."

Lord Voldemort fixed his gaze on him, in a way that Lucius didn't particularly enjoy. "And you have not done anything about it?"

"There is hardly anything to be done at this point." Lucius shrugged. "The girl does no harm, and if we were to - eliminate - her at this point, we would only alienate the boy."

"We would not want that." Voldemort breathed, sucking back the breath thinly and leaning forward. "But I do not like it. Girlss - they can be very dangerousss and I do not want to lossse your boy at this point." He leaned back and studied Lucius. "He may well be the besst Death Eater I have ever had."

Lucius permitted himself a cold smile. "I have tried to ensure that." 

Voldemort smiled.

"Yesss." He said, almost contemplatively. "You have."

He changed the subject abruptly and his tones, so rich and slithery, changed into harsher, sharply inflected tones. "Kill the girlss family."

____________

"I can't be_lieve _that Hermione tried to put a binding curse on me!" Ron complained to Harry, who was listening quietly. There was a new, sadder look on Harry's face, the kind of sadness that had never been there even when Cho had been ignoring him. "I just ask her for some help on the Charms and she goes all mental on me. How am I supposed to pass my Charms exam _now?"_

"The way you always do?" Seamus suggested, snickering. "On prayers and a bit o' luck?"

"You want something to pray about Finnigan?" Ron threatened, lifting a fist.

Seamus just snickered louder than ever. "Yeah, go on with ye."

Ron pulled down his fist. "Hey, Harry, wanna have a go at some Quidditch?"

"I thought you wanted to study."

"Eh, you're right. Now that Hermione's not helping me - for some reason -"

"Girls, eh, Ron?" Dean commiserated, his eyes guiltily sneaking over to where Connie sat. "Can't understand 'em."

"- I'll have to study harder. Mum wasn't too pleased over my O.W.Ls - dunno why - I scored better than Fred or George. . ."

"_Everyone _scored better than Fred and George -" Seamus put in.

" . . . not enough to satisfy her, though - Dad was orright with them until Mum started in on him -"

"Isn't that always the way?' Dean asked sadly, shaking his head in understanding.

" - then Dad got on my case - as if that wasn't enough, Percy had to go on in with one of his lectures - "

"I reckon Percy's gay." Dean said quietly to Seamus, who nodded in agreement.

" - and now I've got to get good marks else Mum will make me study all summer."

"Rotten." Seamus flicked back his robes and clapped Ron on the back. "I guess I'll leave you to your studying."

Ron nodded, looking tragic.

Dean left quietly as well, and Ron turned to his books, casting a slightly wary look at Harry, who had picked up his Transfiguration book and was leafing through it silently. As far as Ron knew - which wasn't very far - he hadn't spoken for about - well, a long time, anyway.

Ron heaved a sigh. _Dunno what's going on around here, but I'm glad school's over in a week._

He snuck a look at Hermione.

Well, that was what he told himself, anyway.

_______________

Hermione cast an unconsciously regretful look towards Ron, who was sitting with Harry. Harry was looking with glazed eyes at his book. Hermione didn't know if that was the result of too much studying - she severely doubted that - or the thing that had been bothering him for the past few weeks.

The thing named Ginny.

But Hermione had better things to think about than the redhead who had everyone falling all over themselves for her. Well, who had _Ron _falling all over himself for her with every mood swing. Not that Hermione was _jealous _jealous. Not _jealous _jealous - because, after all, Ginny was Ron's sister. No, she was jealous _jealous _because Ron cared so much about Ginny, while -well, Ron _didn't _care so much about Hermione. Not so much to the extent that he'd go ballistic everytime Hermione spoke to Victor Krum.

Hermione scowled unconsciously, so fiercely that Neville, who had been about to ask her to help him with his Charms homework gave her an alarmed look and backed off without saying a word. Hermione didn't look at Ron.

For about two seconds.

She looked at him again. He was frowning to himself in that bewildered, frustrated way that always heralded a flinging down of the textbook he was immersed in and a - as of late - nasty curse. Not the magic kind. The verbal kind. 

She hoped he _failed _his Charms test.

Hermione felt a guilty thump of her heart just for thinking it. 

No, she didn't.

Well, that was what she told herself, anyway.

_____________

A white head and a red head, pressed so closely together that it looked like one huge mass of hair. Harry watched it, ignoring the fatal, hopeless twist of the red mass of muscle people called his heart. He watched as Draco emerged from the tangle of hair, whispering something softly to Ginny. He watched as Ginny smiled - a smile so soft only a girl - one particular girl - could smile like that - up at him, and unconsciously laid a hand on his left arm, so gently Harry instinctively looked down at his own arm. But nothing disturbed the neat lay of robe over arm, no murmur of displaced wind over his skin. He looked up again watching as Draco led Ginny from the room, for one moment unguarded tenderness in his eyes. That was the one thing that consoled Harry. Well, half-consoled him, anyway. 

That Draco loved her as much as he did.

Harry almost laughed at the irony of it.

All his life, things had come without him trying.

He'd defeated Voldemort as a baby without trying.

He'd inherited a fortune without trying.

He'd made the best friends ever - Ron and Hermione - without trying.

He'd fallen in love with Ginny without trying.

And before he'd even gotten a chance to try, for the first fucking time in his life, to _try _for the most important thing - Ginny herself . . .

He had lost.

Without getting a chance to try.

Lost to a Death Eater's son, a person who would most likely become a Death Eater himself.

The very people he was supposed to be a representative against.

Wasn't that funny.

Wasn't that _so _fucking funny.

Harry hoped someone up there was laughing, because he sure as hell wasn't.

___________________

Ginny sat cuddled in Draco's arms. 

For all his thinness, Draco had muscles of whipcord, so lean that you couldn't see them under his robes, so strong you couldn't help but feel them.

She loved his hands.

Beautiful hands, representing all that was male and strong about him.

Sure hands, always knowing where to touch, how to touch, when to touch.

Long fingers, as if he had been born to be a piano player or a surgeon. Somewhere in the recesses of her mind, Ginny knew that Voldemort had unusually long fingers. But Voldemort had never had fingers like this, with green and blue veins pulsing just under the skin, strong fingers, that spelt authority and arrogance when they gestured, and when they didn't.

Smooth palm, as if he hadn't done a day's work in his life. 

He probably hadn't.

A callus in the web spanning the distance between his thumb and forefinger, from the rough spot on his wand.

The hands she adored touched her on the cheek, revealing the soft love he would never verbalize.

She could live with that.

For now.

She kissed him.

He took over immediately.

Tongue in her mouth, hot male tongue.

Hands on her back, hot male hands.

Not soft love, this.

Passionate love.

Desire.

On both their parts.

Draco broke away, breathing heavily, sweat beading the line between his forehead and his ridiculously fluffy white hair.

Baby-soft hair.

Ginny loved seeing him like this.

It was the only time he couldn't look cool or arrogant.

He looked hot and lustful.

Not for the first time, Ginny wondered what he would be like in bed.

Not that she was going to find out.

Not for the next few years anyway.

If he was anything as good as he was at kissing . . .

Best to stop that line of thought.

Draco's breathing finally evened out and he swept his mouth down on hers again.

The cycle continued.

The kiss-me-till-I-want-to-tear-off-your-clothes-but-can't cycle.

_______________

Ron turned the corner. 

He was on his way to his Charms exam.

He had studied his brains out, his butt off, and his eyes were still sore.

He was gonna ace that test.

He bumped into Draco Malfoy.

Ron reverberated off the locker.

Draco's bounce was absorbed into the wall.

Ron scowled, his face turning bright red.

"Why don't you look where you're going?" he hissed.

Cold anger swept into Draco's eyes and was quickly replaced by a smirk that was designed to goad and infuriate. "I tend to block out the unimportant things." He drawled insolently.

Ron turned as red as the Weasley hair was purported to be. As red as the Weasley hair actually was. He sputtered. "Oh - yeah?" he retorted.

Draco just smirked harder. "Oh yeah." He mocked.

Ron swept out his wand.

Draco just looked at him, raising one insolent white eyebrow.

"Albino." Ron jeered.

Draco's chin flushed.

It was gone as quickly as it had come.

He had hit a nerve.

"Mudblood lover." Draco hissed.

"Don't you _dare _call Hermione a Mudblood!" Ron snarled, leaping for Malfoy's throat.

Malfoy sidestepped easily and Ron went crashing into the wall. He spun around and pointed at Malfoy. Malfoy flung himself at him and sent the wand flying out of his hand. Ron dug his knee into Malfoy's groin.

Malfoy whitened, clutching his crotch. _Goodbye my redheaded kids. _He thought in a blur of agony. He doubled over on the ground, writhing in pain. He managed to get out his wand and point it at Ron.

He'd learnt a few nasty tricks himself.

A small curse said.

At first Ron didn't feel any different. Then his face paled so much that Malfoy's heart actually leapt.

Maybe he was gonna die of a heart attack.

Ron clutched his own crotch. 

Or lack thereof.

Ron's eyes rolled up in his head and he passed out.

___________________

Ron lay in the hospital bed, looking at Hermione, whose eyes were both shocked and horrified.

_Where's your gratitude, witch?_ He felt like screaming. I was defending your honour, and in return I get my crotch vanished, and you can't even say you're _sorry_?

"Oh Ron!" Hermione finally said. 

No. That was the wrong tone.

That was exasperation, not apology.

"I've told you I don't care about being called a Mudblood!"

Ron crossed his arms and glared. 

His most vital parts had been missing. . .

"I've told you _dozens _of times!"

. . . he'd had to tell MADAM POMFREY about it . . .

"_And _you missed your charms exam!"

. . . and then she'd asked him what SIZE, what goddamn SIZE it was . . .

"Professor Flitwick is refusing to give you a substitute test."

. . . it had been _fourteen _hours before he'd gotten his equipment back . . .

"Oh, Ron."

. . . _and all she could _FUCKING DO was NAG!

Ron growled impotently - as he had been for the past fourteen hours - at her. "God I'm glad school's almost over." He snarled.

Hermione sniffed.

Well, at least they were friends again.

_______________

"Look!" Draco pointed up at the sky.

Ginny looked up.

Draco kissed her on the neck and fell with her to the ground. Ginny laughed and closed her eyes, savouring the feel of his hot breath on her neck.

Ginny didn't notice how Draco guarded her so that no part of her hit the hard ground.

Ginny didn't notice the slow, tender hand that touched her curls briefly and was snatched back guiltily.

Ginny didn't notice the other hand that groped at the edge of her hem, and was snatched away with equal vengeance.

Ginny didn't notice the sweetness of the look that Draco gave her as her eyes closed, the almost worshipful look, the lingering, reverent touch on her hair.

Ginny didn't notice how slowly and gently Draco lowered his head, as if not to startle her as he placed soft kisses on her face, warm sun and warm lips.

Harry did.


	12. Destruction

AN : My computer was busted for a few days so I couldn't get this up, which was why it took such a long time. But I was still writing - the traditional way, pen and ink - so I'm typing up Chapter 13, and I'm almost finished with Chapter 15. I hope you enjoy it, because I'm not entirely satisfied with it. WARNING : CHARACTER DEATH(S).

Disclaimer : Characters and setting belong to JK Rowling. She cannot be blamed for the bad writing that ensues from attempts to exploit characters and setting she comes up with. 

_______________________

"And the holidays begin." Ron grunted as someone shoved him in the belly on the way to the train. He protectively placed his pack in front of himself. He didn't want any more _incidents _happening.

Harry nodded and grinned. He seemed to have perked up slightly over the past few days. Ron didn't know what to attribute this change to, but he was glad of it anyway. Moody Harry's were not high on his fun list. "Dunno if I'm glad or not." Harry remarked. He smirked and tapped his chin. "Hmm. The Dursleys versus good food, Quidditch and Hedwig." He pretended to think. "Tough choice."

Hermione's eyes were full of sympathy. Ron didn't quite like that. 

Ron didn't like it at all.

"I, for one, am glad to be going home." Hermione said briskly, shunning any display of emotion. Ron approved. He _definitely _approved. "It will give me a chance to go through all my notes thoroughly."

"Wha'?" Ron asked disbelievingly. He stared accusingly at Hermione. "Didn't you score over ninety on all your exams?"

Hermione gave him a _look _through a lock of curly brown hair. A look that Ron well knew. The kind of look that told him he was an eejit and she was Hermione. "We have our N.E.W.Ts next year, Ron." She said slowly, drawing out the s. "The most important exam we will _ever _take -"

Ron thanked the good Lord that Ginny decided to pop up at that moment, her red hair wildly dishevelled - probably from one last grope in the corner with Mr. Crotch Disappearer - and her cheeks flushed. "Ron! Please don't talk about exams at home, would you? I _know _I did badly on my O.W.Ls - " a slight frown crossed her face and was banished - "and I don't want anybody reminding Mum of it till my results are out."

Ron drew himself up to his loftiest height and looked patronisingly down at Ginny. "If you had paid more attention to your books instead of Malfoy -"

Ginny flinched. Harry had the sudden urge to put his arms around her. She looked so pretty - not beautiful, but pretty; Harry had a sudden aversion towards beautiful, not pretty girls - standing there, her robes falling just so - Harry loved that quirk of hers, that made her obsessive about the neatness of her clothes - and her hair, beautiful hair that fell just anyhow. Carrot hair, definitely, setting off the paleness of cheeks and the bright eyes, that were always laughing. Harry loved her happiness, always-happy Ginny. 

Ginny laughed suddenly. Harry loved her laugh, it made him think of warm Butterbeer and schoolgirl crushes and warm sun in England. "You're probably right, Ron." She said cheerfully, giving him an affectionate kiss on the cheek. "But just go along with it, all right?"

Ron's face dissolved into a grin and he impulsively hugged her. The next moment he pushed her away, studiously avoiding Harry and Hermione's gaze. "Don't embarrass me, Ginny."

Ginny just laughed again and darted away, smiling at Hermione and Harry.

Harry watched her, unable to tear her eyes away as she grasped Malfoy's hand from behind. He watched as Malfoy turned to her, cool as ever, not betraying any surprise, or embarrassment at holding her hand in front of Crabbe and Goyle. 

And then he turned away. 

There was no use watching something he would never have.

________________

"I already warned Fred and George not to mention exams at home." Ginny told Draco, winding her fingers around his fluffy white hair. She smiled teasingly at him. "Although if my O.W.L results turn out bad - " she forbore to say that she _knew _that they would turn out badly, "they'll have another reason to hate you."

"And I would care because?" Draco drawled. She was sitting on his lap in one of the carriages. He didn't care how it looked to the world. He _knew _how it looked to the world. Grossly cheesy and embarrassingly sentimental. He really didn't care. He was Draco Malfoy. Accountable to no one. 

Well, except his father.

Draco's eyes became hard at the thought of his father. He would be going home to his father, to his father's fleeting approval, to his frequent disapproval. He knew that it would be worse now that they knew about Ginny. He would have to endure barbs about his 'whore' - Draco hated that word, it bore no relation to the smiling, rosy cheeked girl on his lap - all fricking summer long. He was facing a summer of itchiness in his fists and consequent dents in the stone walls that held up his home. 

But the worst thing about it was - going home meant going away from Ginny. Draco's arms tightened convulsively around her. Ginny looked questioningly up at him. It was amazing how much one scrap of white skin topped with bundles of bright red hair - the kind of red you only saw in colouring books - had come to mean to him. 

"Because." Ginny answered illogically. She looked up at him. "Why so thoughtful looking, Malfoy?"

He wouldn't say it. It was just inviting ridicule.

"I'm going to miss you."

He had said it.

Ginny smiled, the kind of smile that made his chest and groin tighten simultaneously, the kind of smile that made him wish - he would never admit it - that she would never realise that he was the worst person in the world for her. 

"You can always come and visit me." Ginny told him. "Or if you can't, there are always owls."

"Owls." Draco sulked. 

Ginny laughed and kissed him. The prospect of no Ginny made Draco kiss her back more fervently than usual. 

They broke apart, heavy breaths, chests heaving.

"I'm going to miss you too." Ginny said, so softly that Draco almost didn't hear it.

"Why don't _you _come and visit me?" Draco asked.

Ginny narrowed her eyes and looked at him. "You really expect me to survive in the same household as Lucius Malfoy? He'd probably poison my food."

"And I can't stomach your brothers." Draco said tautly.

Ginny patted him on the hand, like she would a wild animal. "I didn't mean anything against your dad. Our families hate each other. _We _hate each other's families."

"Couldn't we meet in London?"

"I don't think my parents would let me go to meet my boyfriend." Ginny looked up at Draco with soft eyes and poked him in the stomach. "Isn't the boyfriend supposed to make the sacrifices?"

Draco snorted.

"I guess not." Ginny muttered, chewing on her lower lip. Draco could think of so many better things to do with her lips. He swallowed, hard, and looked away, hoping she'd stop doing that soon. 

Draco had a sudden, horrifying thought. "Is Potter going to be coming over to your home during the hols?"

Ginny shrugged. "Probably. He usually does." She looked at Draco and shook her head. "Oh, no. No, you are not. You're not thinking that I'll take one look at him and fall in love with him all over again, are you?"

"Of course not." Draco lied, drawing himself up. "As if you'd like _him _when you had me -"

But she had, once, Draco remembered, with a sickening thud of his chest.

And day after day of close proximity with Potter the Pearl of Wizardry -

Day after day of close proximity with the guy she'd once adored -

Draco had a sudden, sharp vision of his summer.

Day after day he would be enduring insults directed toward the absent Ginny, so he would never be able to forget that she was in the same house as Potter . . .

_________________

"Slut." Connie accused, pointing a long, tapered fingernail at Fran.

Fran looked hot. "Hey, I didn't _know _which twin I was kissing, alright? I thought it was -" she paused to think for a long, suspicious minute. "Fred. I mean they _look _alike, alright?"

Connie's lips pursed. "Well, I think you should have made _sure."_

Fran just looked at her, bored. "What's the difference? We've never quibbled over guys before." Her eyes narrowed. "Don't tell me you really _like _George."

Connie flushed instantly. "Of course not -"

"Because if you _are, can_ I just remind you of that pledge we made? You know. The '_To thy hormones ever be true, never commit to a boy lest your actions he misconstrue?'_ pledge?"

"I take it you're never going to marry?" Connie retorted.

Fran didn't miss a beat. "Not unless he's prepared to shuck over some heavy alimony."

_________________

"Isn't she a wonder?" Fred asked his twin.

"She's a great kisser." George agreed. He looked uneasily over to where the two girls were standing, one fair haired, the other dark, with glances turning towards them like ants to a piece of Every Flavour Beans. "But I _am _supposed to be with Connie -"

"Eh, forget about it, Georgie. They're girls. They'll work it out."

And the hustle and bustle of the train station went on.

___________________

Lucius watched as his son came up to him, looking moody and belligerent. "Where are you going?" he barked out.

Draco cast him a heavy lidded look, dark and unreadable underneath his lids. It reminded Lucius so much of Narcissa - when she still loved him - that he was afflicted with an acute pain. "To London." Draco finally drawled out. He flicked a glance at his father, a glance that was purposefully scornful. "Or is that not allowed?"

Lucius swept his son with eyes that burned with a cold fire. "Go." He said abruptly. Draco left.

Lucius left an hour later.

They were both going to the same place.

And it wasn't London.

______________

"Heavens above, it's hot!" Mrs. Weasley said, fanning her plump bosom with Harry's freshly written essay. He could see the ink on it running together, blurring his words so that he would have to rewrite the whole thing - all nine hundred words of it - all over again. He kept quiet. He would gladly have rewritten it twenty times. At least he wasn't at the Dursleys anymore.

"Yeah." Ron agreed, lying on the grass, his face covered with a Transfiguration textbook. He had been sleeping for the past few hours. "Why don't you go in and get us some iced pumpkin juice, Ginny, you lazy thing."

Ginny, who was equally prone on the ground, red hair fanned about her, mumbled something unintelligible, but Harry assumed it was a negative. He looked at her fondly for a second. He liked to imagine that - well, that was all it was, imagination.

"I'll get it." Harry said, getting up. He was the only one who had been sitting up, anyway. The Weasleys were spread about him like little red smurfs on the grass.

"No - no -" Mr Weasley said half-heartedly. "One of you boys get it. Harry's a guest."

There was a decided lack of answers. Harry grinned and went inside. He was searching the fridge for the jug of juice Mrs. Weasley had prepared that morning, when he heard a slight commotion outside. Harry halted and listened intently. He could hear the words "Malfoy" and "getoutofhere" but it died down after a while. Harry went outside quickly, his heart sinking.

Sure enough, it was Draco bloody Malfoy outside, fresh off his Nimbus Whatever-thousand broom, looking cool even in this sweltering heat. Harry's hand tightened around the handle of the jug and he unconsciously clenched his jaw when the Weasleys discreetly turned away as Ginny got up with a huge smile on her face and brought Draco around the back. Ron looked as if he wanted to protest, but George gave him a look and pointed at Ron's crotch. Ron reddened and subsided immediately and Bill, who had appeared to be asleep for the past few hours, gave a loud chortle.

Harry forced himself to loosen his grip on the jug and went outside. He sat down and started to quietly pour out glasses of juice. He thought that Bill - the allegedly asleep Bill - shot him a pitying look, but he was probably imagining it. No one knew about his infatuation with Ginny.

No one.

Well, at least he hoped not.

He watched the members of the Weasley family; they were all so characteristically employed that he couldn't help grinning. Molly and Arthur were leaning against an old oak, fingertips touching, eyes half-closed as they murmured to each other. Bill was also leaning against a tree, a young apple one which didn't have any fruit to speak of. His long ponytail was caught behind him and his five earrings caught the light sharply. His eyes seemed closed. Harry knew they weren't.

Charlie was lazily flipping through a Quidditch magazine, propped against a stack of comics that looked suspiciously like Ron's beloved _Martin the Mad Muggle _series. Every now and then he'd prod Percy in the small of his back, making Percy jump in the air and scowl ferociously. The only concession Percy had made to the broiling summer day was to come outside. He sat cross-legged, his spine looking as if he'd stuck a broomstick up his arse. A sheaf of papers covered with stamps and tiny writing sat in front of him, and a small, official looking Ministry Owl sat by his side, ready to send off any letter. Every now and then, she let out a small, disapproving hoot. There wasn't much difference between Percy and the owl.

Fred and George had their wands in their hands and were having a war between models of Viktor Krum and Oliver Wood, who'd become Keeper for England the previous year. Krum seemed to be missing an arm and Harry guessed that it was the old model Ron had had in the fourth year.

Ron was lying prone on the ground. 

Ginny was out back kissing Draco Malfoy.

Yes, they were all characteristically employed.

Before Harry could wish as he always did, that the Weasley family was his, he looked up and saw several figures with hoods pulled over their faces, flying above them, pointing wands and shooting the Dark Mark into the sky. Then they aimed their wands in unison at the Weasley property as they swooped downwards on their broomsticks.

Harry screamed. His scar burned.

The ball of fire came down.

_______________

Ginny heard Harry scream and broke away from Draco, eyes wide. Before she could think coherently, she saw the Dark Mark in the sky.

And they were all engulfed in fire.

_______________

Harry was in pain. Hot flames licked at his robe sleeve and Harry blindly felt for his wand. Around him he could see nothing but more flames, orange red demons dancing around him.

"Watio - " Harry choked out, his heart pounding. _The Weasleys. _Water sprayed out of his wand in great spurts and he doused a pathway through the flames, stumbling and coughing. Entire despair overwhelmed him as exhaustion and the cold pain of burnt flesh overtook him. He wouldn't get out of this one alive -

Harry fell onto the grass, the warmth making his body crave coolness, like a hot head on a hot pillow. He fought the overwhelming urge to pass out again, but part of him wanted to lose, so suffocating was the heat around him.

Harry struggled to his feet. "Mr. Weasley." He croaked. "Mrs. Weasley. Bill. Charlie. Percy. Ron." He stumbled again. "_Ginny!" _

He fought the blackness beckoning him with more determination. Finally he saw somebody, a body lying in the grass. His heart slipped and he _knew. _He knew the person was dead. It wasn't Ginny, but he couldn't rejoice in that.

Not now.

Slowly, with dread welling up in his stomach, uncurling to spread throughout his body, till his movements were wooden and stilted, he moved forward. He tripped over a burning plank and fell, his head thumping hard on the ground. 

Harry closed his eyes briefly, not wanting to get up again. 

He opened his eyes. 

He got up.

He didn't blink as he moved forwards and saw who it was.

Harry turned his head and vomited.

The sight before him -

It bore no resemblance to the laughing, joking boy he had known. The face was drawn, not in horror or fear, but shock. Eighteen years of life, reduced to an expression of _shock. _

Harry's thought began to whirl in thoughts he couldn't deal with.

__

Always been Fred and George.

Now it's just Fred.

Just Fred.

Fred.

Harry fell to his knees and wept.

Minutes later he stumbled to his feet, not looking at George's dead body. It might have been cowardly. 

Harry didn't care.

He fought his way through the flames and saw another figure through the angry, hazy tendrils of smoke. Even through the smoke he could see that the figure didn't have red hair.

White as snow.

Bile rose in Harry's throat, along with a hatred so black and hot that he had to retch. When the heaving stopped, he moved forward blindly, and flung himself at him.

Lucius Malfoy.

Lucius flung Harry off easily. "The Potter boy." He sneered. His thin mouth drew up. "An added bonus."

Harry was too angry to use his wand.

He punched Lucius.

Lucius fell.

"Am I worth it?" Harry screamed. "Am I worth it?" he thought of Malfoy, going off with Ginny. "Am I worth it? Am I worth killing your own bloody son?"

Lucius' expression didn't change.

That was when Harry knew.

Anyone, anyone, even a father who genuinely hated his son, would have betrayed something at that point. Surprise, happiness . . . something.

Lucius loved Draco.

And now he had killed him.

Harry loomed over Lucius, staggering slightly, but he wouldn't fall.

Not now.

He loomed over Lucius and looked, just looked, the fury and pain and hate so potent in him that he felt nothing, not even when he lifted his hand and killed Lucius Malfoy.

______________

"Harry."

Harry whipped around and saw Ron and Mrs. Weasley, having just gotten to their feet. Both were pale and dazed. Harry saw with a calm acceptance that Ron's left arm was missing. Mrs. Weasley was bleeding so profusely everywhere that Harry could not be too relieved over finding her alive.

"Where is everyone?" Mrs. Weasley asked, voice high and panicked. "Where is everyone? Where is Arthur? Where are the children?"

He couldn't tell her about George.

"I'll help you find them." Harry said. He saw that the Dark Mark in the sky had receded. The Death Eaters had gone.

The carnage they had left behind remained.

They all started to subdue the fire.

They found Bill dead.

They found Fred dead.

They found Charlie, unconscious but unscathed, except for a burning cut against his cheek, a scar he would keep for the rest of his days.

They found Percy, cut and bruised, the Ministry owl beside him dead.

Harry couldn't tell them about George.

When they found his body, they saw his vomit.

They said nothing.

There was nothing to say.

With each discovery, Molly Weasley said nothing, but each time, her eyes dimmed a little and her shoulders, usually so straight with the burden and pride of seven children, turned inwards until she looked like an old hunched woman.

"Molly."

They found Arthur Weasley on the ground, both his legs gone, and bleeding so much they each knew he didn't have long to live if they couldn't stop the bleeding.

Molly stopped it and her own wounds, with a point of her wand and a soft spell said through white lips that would never speak of what she had just seen.

Arthur Weasley didn't ask of his children in words, he stared at his wife and asked mutely.

Molly didn't answer.

She stayed with her husband and children.

Ron and Harry moved to the backyard.

They knew they would find Ginny and Draco.

_________________

Ginny woke and found Draco beside her. He looked strangely young as he slept, harsh breaths making his sleep restless. Ginny watched.

She couldn't move.

She shook Draco urgently. "Wake up." Her breath came faster. She remembered it all. "Wake up." Her shaking became more urgent. "Wake up. Wake up." She remembered it all. She thought of Harry's scream and began to tremble. Oh God. Her family. "Wake up. Wake up. Wake up -"

"Ginny. Ginny." Draco was shushing her and she realised dimly that his hair was singed. She couldn't stop shaking him, but he was calming her down, as upset as she was. "Ginny. You're getting hysterical. "Shh." He was comforting her. "It's all right. Shhh."

Ginny didn't cry. There was no time to cry. She calmed herself, holding herself in tight control. "We have to go find my family." She said. She trembled.

'We don't have to." Draco said gently, holding her tightly. He pointed. "They're here."

Across the backyard, across the blackened, hollow shell of the Burrow, Harry stood, with Ron by his side, and Ginny's heart gave an awful leap.

Harry stood, straight and tall, sooty and dirty and bleeding. His black hair stood on end and his body was in bad shape. But the expression on his face -

It was frightening. The features she knew so well were unfamiliar, tight and drawn, such fearless, blind hate filled his eyes that Ginny clutched Draco's hand tighter. This was not the Harry she knew so well. She knew, with a heart deep pang of pity and sadness that Harry had come into his inheritance.

__________________

Draco watched warily as Potter and Weasley number six crossed the yard. His eyes met Potter's and for once no animosity flashed between them. They shared something now. 

Ginny left his arms and went to her brother. She didn't know -

She knew -

"Ron -"

Ron said nothing, but his eyes looked into his sister's with such bleak grief that Ginny recoiled in blind fear. She had to know.

"Harry -" 

And her voice made him want to cry again, as he had by George's body.

He couldn't tell her.

"No." Ginny said, her voice hoarse, backing away. "No." She read the truth in the answers they didn't give her.

She turned to run to the front yard.

She was stopped.

She slammed into a tall, thin body.

The body of a snake.

Voldemort.


	13. After the Fall

AN: Almost nearing the end nowmy telephone just got busted, otherwise I'd have had this up the day after Part 12 came out. I know, abrupt change to the non-killing, but its best this way, trust me.I think the next part will be the epilogue. A very long epilogue. What can I say - I love dwelling on the happy-ever after part. Draco and Ginny AREN'T behaving and they want to go on angsting, but that simply cannot be allowed. 

Well, maybe it can't be allowed.

Enjoy. Review. (They're not mutually exclusive.)

Disclaimer : Characters and setting belong to JK Rowling.

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He stood there, tall and austere, unmarked amidst destruction. His red eyes shone with a light that fed off the fear around him.

Except Harry's.

Harry feared nothing now.

There as nothing left to fear.

"And we meet again." Voldemort hissed.

Harry said nothing.

Voldemort flung Ginny aside and she fell to the ground painfully. Harry's heart clenched but he didn't do anything. Draco was by Ginny's side in an instant ad he helped her up gently. She pushed his hands away and staggered to her feet, needing no support.

Draco understood and stepped back silently. It was not his battle.

The three of them stood in a row, each in pain, each young, so young compared to Voldemort. Draco jnew there was no match.

But he wouldn't do anything.

Well, unless Ginny was involved.

Then all bets were off.

"Step back." Harry said, not taking his eyes off voldemort. His voice was cold and there was something in it Draco recognized.

Power.

"No." Ron said.

Ginny shook her head, chin set, eyes dark.

"It's my fight." Harry said, and it was as if someone else was speaking,

but it wasn't.

It was Harry, distorted by a hate so pure that few would hear it and not quail. Even years later, remnants of it would linger.

"Step back." Harry repeated, and this time, the tow Weasleys did. Ginny did not seek Draco out and he did not expect her to.

Voldemort watched silently. "Touching." He remarked.

And then they were locked in battle.

It was a battle so intense that none of them would remember it later.

If they did, they never spoke of it.

It was a battle of hate.

All of them would remember the hate that poured off Harry.

All of them would never think of Harry in the same way again.

Never.

When it was all over, they saw Voldemort lying on the ground.

He was dead.

They burned him.

And Draco stood to one side, watching.

He had no part in it.

___________

It was a sunny day. Hermione sat next to Ron. He was sitting by himself at the edge of the Weasley property, his new left arm throwing rocks across the ground. Rocks that had been part of the Burrow.

She had not seen him before this. It had been a week since the deaths.

Hermione had cried when she heard of the twins, Bill's deaths. She had cried for the meaningless deaths of the jolly twins she had known, the tall young man in his prime she had met. She had cried for the Weasley family, she had cried for Harry, and she had cried for Ron. She prayed for words to say, the right words to say, the words that would magically heal Ron's soul the way the doctors had healed his body.

There were no such words.

Ron spoke first.

She listened. It was all she had to do.

"It's funny." He said dreamily, staring at the bright blue sky, the sun warm. A beautiful day. "I always wanted to stand out, to not be in anyone's shadow. To be Ron. Just Ron. Not Ron Weasley. Not Bill's brother, or Charlie's brother, or Harry's friend. Not one of the Weasley pack, y'know?

"And now I'm not. I'm the boy who helped destroy Voldemort. I'm Ron Weasley, not Harry Potter's friend. No one will ever call me that again.

"And I suppose that it's not that surprising that I don't want to be that anymore. I was to be one of the Weasley pack. I want to be - defined - by the people around me. Percy's brother."

He took a deep breath. "It's secure. It's safe. I don't know any kind of definition other than that. And now I'll never be that. I'll never be Fred's brother, George's brother. Not anymore."

His voice cracked. "Now it's just me and Mum and Dad and Ginny and Charlie and Percy."

He closed his eyes and bowed his head and when he opened them, he turned to face Hermione for the first time, and his eyes were red and so sad that Hermione's heart broke.

"I'm scared, Hermione." He whispered. "I'm just so scared."

Hermione did the only thing she could do.

She held him tightly, and as he cried in her arms, she held him and stared at the bright blue sky and the fluffy white clouds that floated unseeingly above them.

_____________

Harry watched Ginny, who stood hugging herself, staring at what had once been the Burrow. A slight chilly breeze made Harry shiver and he didn't betray any surprise when Draco Malfoy came up beside him.

Harry remembered when Draco had found out that his father was dead. He, like his father, had shown no emotion. But Ginny had known, as Harry did, and she quietly led him away. That had touched Harry. In the midst of her own grief, Ginny had known how to comfort Draco.

Draco's next words didn't surprise him. He had known, somehow, that Draco would know. He had ceased thinking of him as Malfoy, Harry realised with brief, detached surprise.

"You killed my father." Draco said.

Harry nodded and didn't look at him. "How did you know?"

"You were the only one who would have done it." Draco said. He stared at Ginny.

"I would do it again."

Draco laughed shortly, a bitter laugh. "I don't blame you. He was a bastard." Hus tone betrayed him, even if his face didn't.

Harry knew he had to tell. "He loved you." He said quietly, feeling some awkwardness. "Before I killed him - he knew you were here. He thought he had killed you." Harry hesitated. "When he knew that - he could have gotten away, from me, easily. He had his wand out ad he was stronger - but - but - he - he just closed his eyes and - he _wanted_ to die. He let me kill him." Harry swallowed.

Neither of them said anything for a while, and Harry knew that in Draco's silence was a struggle. In his silence was a thank you. A thank you Draco Malfoy would never voice.

He was his father's son.

As Harry was his.

"You love Ginny." Draco said finally, the two young men watching the woman they both loved.

Maybe equally.

Harry was silent. "Yes."

In the single syllable was the intense, passionate, loyal love of a strong soul who would not love easily.

"I won't tell her." Harry said, staring ahead of him. "She's yours." It was the hardest thing he'd ever said, but he said it easily, and he accepted it, patiently. Harry knew then that he would always love Ginny.

And he would never have her.

Always.

Never.

Harry glanced at Draco then and saw the wavering on his face, the longing and the uncertainty and pride mingled. "I couldn't have her even if I wanted." Harry said quietly. He swallowed again. "She wants you."

Draco's face stilled, slowly, and he was at peace. He met Harry's eyes and they exchanged a thank you.

They both stepped forward and their eyes met again. 

* * Harry stepped back.

He let Draco Malfoy go to the girl they both loved.

He let Draco Malfoy be first, as he would always be in Ginny's heart.

And when he watched Ginny turn trustingly to Draco, and their eyes meet in a love only they could have or understand, he knew he had made the right decision.

Harry turned away and allowed himself a grim smile.

Draco Malfoy was still a bastard, though.

_______________

* * _One Year Later._

"Do I look all right?" ron fussed, tugging at the neckline of the graduation robe he wore. He scowled at the mirror and made a face.

Hermione came up behind him and laughed over his shoulder, pulling his hands away and giving him a kiss on the back of his neck. "You look fine." Ron turned and grinned at her.

Hermione herself was looking pretty good, Harry took in with a private smile at how cheesy Ron and Hermione always were together. Her colour was high and her eyes were bright with excitement. Out loud he said. "Gag me."

Hermione laughed at him and Ron just grinned, looking more idiotic than usual. He had grown up at lot over the last year.

He still had a lot more growing up to do.

Harry took a look in the mirror and stoofd in front of it for a moment, taking in his own image. He knew that he looked almost exactly like his father had years ago. Except for the serious green eyes that stared back at him, his mother's contribution 

"You look great, Harry." Hermione told him.

Harry smiled. He discreetly left when Hermione gravitated towards Ron like she always did after a minute or so of separation.

He bumped into Ginny, who was in her pink dress robes, completely clashing with her carrot red hair. Harry liked the effect though, he always did. He took her in with eyes that had learned to conceal rather than reveal.

Ginny laughed and straightened before Harry could help her up. She smiled at him, a smile so full of sweetness and genuine affection that Harry's eyes softened. "You look wonderful, Harry." She said happily, brushing a white hand against his neckline. She held her arms out for a hug. "Congratulations."

Harry hugged her, setting a brotherly kiss on her cheek, savouring the feel of her in his arms. "Thank you." He said seriously. He smiled. "You're looking pretty good yourself." He nodded at the sheaf of white flowers in her arms. "Those for Draco?"

Ginny's mouth curved upwards. "Yes. They're white carnations." She said helpfully. She laughed. "I couldn't afford roses. " She nodded at them. "I thought they'd go with his hair."

Harry nodded solemnly. "Good choice."

Ginny was oblivious to any ambiguous meaning. "I really have to find him." She apologised. She gave him another hug and it was her turn to kiss him. "I'm going to miss you next year."

Harry's heart thrilled at her touch and at her words. Maybe she would never love him as she loved Draco, but he knew she had grown to care for him very deeply.

That was enough.

That had to be enough.

Ginny turned and walked away. After she had taken a few steps, she hesitated and slipped back to Harry, who was still there, watching her. She pressed some flowers into his empty hands gently, with love. "Happy Graduation, Harry." She laughed, and then she was gone.

____________

Draco waited for Ginny patiently at the door to the great Hall. He'd learnt to be patient, what with all the waiting he always did for Ginny.

Well, kind of patient, anyway.

And then she was in front of him, a pretty young woman with a fair, sweet face ad laughing eyes. Her dress clashed with her hair, but the overall look was pleasing, so pleasing that Draco couldn't fault it.

"Late again." He remarked.

Ginny laughed at him. "I ran into Harry in the hall." She explained.

Draco's face didn't tighten as it would have a year ago at the mention of Harry. He'd called an unofficial truce with Harry for the past year.

It made for a peaceful life.

But with Weasley number six around, it wasn't too peaceful.

Draco was about to rub his crotch protectively when he realized what he was about to do.

Ginny stepped closer. "I got you flowers." She said, holding out the bundle with both hands. Draco's heart hitched with pride and happiness - pride that she loved him and happiness because he loved her.

He gave her a soft kiss on her lips, a kiss of adoration, not lust. "I love you." He breathed against her lips. He frowned down on the flowers. "I like the flowers, but aren't there customarily a dozen, not seven?"

Ginny just laughed again and they stood together for a moment, just standing close to each other.

It was enough.

It always was.

___________

The graduation ceremony was held outside. It was short and precise, there was no elaboration. The students had wanted it that way.

Harry listened to Hermione's valedictorian speech. It was a brilliant speech, brief, to the point and with a slight tinge of lecturing. There was nothing sentimental about it, it was pure Hermione, right down to the slight disapproval when she talked about grades, and Harry liked that. He looked at his classmates, at their familiar faces. 

It was a sunny day, cool but sunny, and Harry looked in the crowd for his red-haired surrogate family. He found Mr and Mrs. Weasley sitting in the fourth row, with Ginny and Charlie and Percy and Hagrid, towering over all of them. As always he had to swallow when he saw how much the Weasley family had diminished. Mrs. Weasley had gotten a lot more grey hair over the last year, and Mr. Weasley looked so much older that Harry was half-alarmed. He looked down at his hands, full of Ginny's white carnations, the yellow ones Mrs. Weasley had handed to him earlier and the one orange rose from Hermione. 

When they caught his eye, they all smiled proudly, as if he really was their son. Harry grinned back, but part of him wished his own parents were there.

But he was all right.

He was happy.

___________

The graduation feast was about to start. Harry scanned the crowd, looking for a piece of red, or the sky blue robes that Mrs. Weasley had been wearing. He caught sight of Ginny.

Someone he always wanted to see.

Just not gummed to Draco Malfoy's side.

"You're like me." A voice, strangely bitter, said from beside him.

Harry looked down to see Pansy Parkinson, looking at Draco and Ginny, looking painfully happy, laughing quietly at each other. 

They were holding hands.

They looked like they were made to hold hands.

His large, sensitive white hand, cupping her small, finely boned one -

Harry didn't bother denying it. "Maybe." He said.

Pansy kept on looking at them. "We are." She said flatly. "We both love someone who will never love us back. And -" she seemed to forget she was talking and sighed. "You were luckier than me, though." She said, almost conversationally. "She loved you for a while. Maybe not as much as she loved him now, but at least you had a chance, once."

_I had a chance._

_I let it go. _

"Well, at least he's happy." Pansy said. She laughed, shortly. "Too bad he isn't happy with me."

_At least she's happy._

They separated then.

Each was just a reminder of the other's pain.


	14. And The Winds Blow Gently

AN: Well, it's up. It really is. This part is just a few years after the last chapter, and it is not the epilogue. I just figured this part was kind of necessary to round everything off nicely. The epilogue is the next part, and it is the last. This part is supremely sappy (I was listening to Billy Gilman's _Oklahoma_). I just went through my last chapter, and I was shocked by how many awful spelling and grammatical mistakes there were. I apologize, and hopefully there will be few, if not none in this chapter. I'd like to thank, this time, Anita Skeeter, because her reviews are always an ego booster. =) I hope you enjoy this chapter, and it makes you sigh at least once . . .

I do adore reviews.

Disclaimer : Characters and setting belong to JK Rowling.

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__

A few years later.

"It's disgusting outside!" Ron yelled as he stepped into the Burrow II. Hermione came in with him, a small diamond ring on her finger. They had just gotten engaged.

Everyone thought it was about time.

Mrs. Weasley bustled to his side, taking their coats and hanging them up. She turned to close the wide open door, briefly looking out with an unconsciously expectant, wistful look on a face that had grown suddenly old over the past few years. As long as she lived, Molly Weasley would never look out on an open door again without a half-hope in her heart, a longing for a glimpse of figures she would never see again.

She closed the door.

"How wonderful of you to come so early!" she said with a beam. She hugged Hermione. "Ginny is upstairs with Connie and Fran. They've been giggling like schoolgirls for the last few hours. I suppose they think they're still schoolgirls-" Mrs. Weasley drifted away, leaving a grinning Charlie with a mouthful of pie to explain,

"Mum's been absolutely crackers over the wedding."

Hermione nodded understandingly, and floated upstairs. Ron pointed to the pie and asked, "Where can I get one of those?"

Charlie led the way into the kitchen, where Percy, who was characteristically staring at a sheet of parchment, sat, oblivious to the steaming pie in front of him. He'd become the youngest Minister of Magic ever the year before - and as much as Ron hated to admit it, he was doing wonders in the magical community. The fussiness that had characterised and alienated Percy Weasley in youth had stood him in good stead in adulthood. 

"Owl just came for you." Percy said, not looking up. He tossed a white owl at Ron. It fluttered excitedly, reminding Percy of Pig, who was already pecking his way craftily towards the pie. Ron swatted at Pig and sat down. "Who's it from?" Ron asked, already recognising the messy black scratches. 

"Harry." Percy replied. "And don't get any pie on my documents."

Ron smiled brightly and vaguely at him, opening the parchment. He scanned it and grinned, whistling lightly. "He'll be Apparating here tomorrow." He said in response to Charlie's questioning look. He took a huge bite of pie. "Goo' ol' 'arry. Shoulda known he wouldna missed 'inny's we'ing."

"Where's he been for the last few months?" Charlie asked, cutting himself a piece of chocolate cake. Percy absentmindedly held out a plate and Charlie, grinning, poured some juice onto it. Percy mumbled a 'thanks' and speared a fork into the juice, lifting the fork to his lips and chewing, not realising there was no cake. Charlie rolled his eyes.

"Oh, all around the place." Ron replied, ignoring Charlie's antics. "Oh- England asked him to play Quidditch for them again."

"Turned them down, did he?"

"Of course. Something about England only wanting him for publicity."

"Wouldn't blame them. That kind of person brings in a lot of money. Harry's been even more famous than usual lately - especially after catching all those Dementors - "

"Yeah - he's planning to settle down soon, though -"

"As what?"

"Professor of Defence Against the Dark Arts, no less. I hear Dumbledore's already accepted his application. Speaking of the old coot - did Ginny really invite him to the wedding?"

"Yea - him and the rest of the Hogwarts crew. She mumbled something about proper gratitude - something tiresomely sentimental. You know Ginny. Draco kicked up a bit of a fuss, but he let her have her way-"

" - as usual." Ron and Percy finished.

"He's showing all the signs of becoming a henpecked husband." Percy mumbled, then went back to this work.

"I don't blame the guy for not wanting the teachers." Ron said. "He wasn't very popular with them - except for Snape -" Ron grimaced at the very thought. "Is _he _coming?"

Charlie raised an eyebrow. "Our little sister? Not inviting her dear fiance's favourite teacher? What do you take her for?"

"I didn't ask if she was inviting him. Is he coming?"

"I don't correspond with Snape, Ron." Charlie paused and sneaked some more cake onto his plate. "But yes, he is coming."

Ron groaned.

Hermione paused uncertainly outside Ginny's room. She could hear giggled that sounded young and knowing at once. The kind of giggles she had never participated in except for the odd bonding sessions she'd had with the girls in her dorm when dances came around. Much of her teenaged years had been spent with Harry and Ron as companions, which wasn't very conducive to the kind of giggles she was hearing. Well, unless you wanted to be called a girl and all the feminine stereotypes that came with that. Hermione didn't realize what being friends with Ron and Harry _had _given her. It had given her a loophole from the cattiness of females, a straightforwardness that only males had -

And her fiance.

She'd never been great friends with Ginny, and it seemed a bit presumptuous to try to chum it up now. It would look like she was simply trying to pal it up with her future sister-in-law.

Hermione knocked on the door.

She heard scuffles, more giggles, and someone getting up. The door opened and Connie grinned at her. "Hermione! Hi! Ginny's inside."

Hermione smiled weakly and falsely. "Great."

She came in and smiled at Ginny, who was lying on her stomach. Ginny looked up and smiled at her. "Hi, Hermione! Is Ron here?"

"Yes, he's downstairs." Hermione stood awkwardly. "Mind if I join you?"

"Oh no! Of course not! Sit down!" Ginny grinned chummily at her. "We're just looking at some magazines. You know."

Hermione wasn't sure what she was supposed to know, but she nodded sagely. "How's your job going?" Fran asked. She was as beautiful as ever, Hermione saw, and just as insolent as she had been in her youth. The long black hair, falling silkily over her shoulders, the knowing hooded eyes, the even more knowing red mouth, the husky voice, that had made boys and now men, think things that Hermione definitely didn't want to think about. Fran smiled, a genuine smile. "Ginny told us you were writing textbooks for the Ministry of Magical Education."

Hermione nodded again. "Going quite well." She replied politely. "And you? What do you do?"

Fran laughed. "What do I do, Ginny?" Hermione didn't miss the affectionate, unguarded look she threw at Ginny. So Fickle Fran really did love, after all. Hermione felt, suddenly, that perhaps, these three girls, whose close and unwavering friendship she'd always admired - had in their own way remained untouched by time - 

"Slut around?" Ginny asked dryly.

"Hit on rich men?" Connie suggested.

Hermione was shocked and expected Fran to explode, but Fran just laughed and silently acknowledged their words.

"I can't believe I'm getting married tomorrow." Ginny softy said, a faraway look in her eyes.

"Will you believe that she won't even tell us how Draco proposed?" Connie complained to Hermione. "I mean - that's exactly the kind of thing you're supposed to tell your best friends!"

"Some things are too - dear - to tell - " Ginny murmured, half-quoting, the dream still in her eyes. She met Hermione's eyes and they bonded in that instant. Hermione, too, had not told anyone of Ron's proposal. It was too sweet to be passed around like comon gossip. 

"Besides," Ginny said, "Do you think we're still at Hogwarts? Remember how you used to rate guys and how you tried to get me to tell you how Draco rated?"

"You never did tell us." Fran grumbled.

Ginny laughed. "Am I to tell you all the details of my wedding night, then?"

Connie smiled wickedly, a vintage Coy Connie smile, like a rare wine, intoxicating and something to be savoured. "You know what they say - sharing is caring."

Ginny threw a pillow at her. And health is wealth. I'm not telling you anything."

"Grumpy Ginny." Fran drawled.

Hermione giggled.

She really did.

A schoolgirl giggle.

There was still hope.

"We're getting married tomorrow." Ginny told Draco, as if he didn't know. They were sitting on the porch together, listening to the crickets yodel and looking at their intertwined hands. "Getting cold feet yet?"

"No. You?"

Ginny kissed him. "Hot as ever."

Draco's white teeth flashed. "Good. Besides, if I got cold feet now, my mother would kill me. She loves weddings, and my wedding is no exception."

"All my relatives are Apparating over tomorrow." Ginny thought out loud. "A Weasley conference."

"And enough red hair to blind a Hippogriff." 

Ginny looked at him reproachfully. "All our children will have red hair. It's a genetic thing."

"The first child of any Malfoy marriage has fair hair. It's a tradition thing." He added arrogantly, "It's a Malfoy thing."

Ginny just laughed as his hand wandered fondly over her hair, giving lie to his words. "I don't really care." She said. She grinned. "As long as there are a lot of them."

"You can be sure there will be." Draco murmured hotly, leaning down and kissing her long and hard. When they broke apart he asked quietly, "Are you sure you don't mind that Pansy is coming to the wedding?"

Ginny stiffened slightly, then she smiled weakly. "If Crabbe and Goyle can come, then Pansy can come." She sighed and looked at Draco, slight insecurity in her eyes.

Draco's arm tightened around her. "I never loved her. I only invited her because - it was the proper thing to do."

"And all the Malfoys are proper." Ginny said whimsically. She smiled again. "I think I'm all right with it." She looked at him seriously. "I love you, you know."

"You know I love you." Draco said fervently. He grimaced. "I suppose if you can put up with Pansy, I can put up with Potter."

"Now, that's completely different." Ginny said, looking at him levelly. "Harry's a friend of the whole family and you _know _that I don't love him."

Draco laughed, a fleeting undertone of bitterness which Ginny forgot in the hug he gave her. "And _you _know that I don't love Pansy." He kissed her. "You should have gotten over that -"

Ginny turned into his arms and looked at him searchingly. She knew suddenly, as she stared into those unguarded, tender eyes looking down at her, that they belonged to each other. Pansy and Harry were - were nothing. Suddenly her face lit up. "I have." She said, almost wonderingly. Then she laughed and pressed his hand.

When Ginny had gone in, Draco stood by himself for a moment, and the Malfoy straightness of spine left him for a second.

"No, you don't love Potter." He said, as if talking to Ginny. "But you did once, and if he had ever spoken up - maybe you still would."

But his words fell on damp grass, and on the hard earth that didn't give a damn.

Ron stood impatiently in the yard. Every now and then, he'd glance at his watch, or look up and wave at Hermione, who was waiting at the window. 

"You're late." He grumbled to himself.

Harry Apparated in front of him.

"Harry!" Ron crowed, and slapped him on the back. "You're late! What would your students think?"

Harry grinned widely. "They'd pretend I was early. You look as constipated as ever, Ron. Where's your fiancee?"

"His fiancee likes to be called Hermione." She interjected, giving him a quick hug. "And what's that supposed to mean? Ron does not look constipated."

"Tell your fiancee I'm just joking, Ron." Harry teased. "Where's your mum, Ron?"

Hermione glared at him. Harry smiled back. "Touchy little thing, your fiancee, Ron." He remarked.

"Yeah. Getting harder to keep her in line . . ." Ron said wistfully.

They laughed, laughter so obnoxious that only males could laugh like that. Hermione sniffed and marched inside, nose in the air. 

"Mum's inside." Ron told him. "But I wouldn't go near her now, she's absolutely mad over the wedding. Dad can't get her to sit still."

"Where's Charlie and Percy?"

'Percy's up in his room, sending out Owls - apparently the Ministry's a mad place with him taking a holiday, and Charlie is out back training Pig to go up and charm the Ministry Owls." Ron added unnecessarily, "I think he's trying to rile Percy up."

They heard an enraged "CHARLIE!" erupt out of an upper bedroom window. 

"What about the bride? Where's she?"

"Oh, Ginny's in the kitchen. I think she's eating breakfast." Ron added thoughtfully, "If you want to talk to her, now's probably the best time. Her two cronies are still sleeping."

"Thanks." Harry started to walk to the kitchen, Ron at his side. "What about the groom?"

Ron shrugged. "Well, you know that old Muggle tradition that the bride not see the groom before the actual ceremony?"

Harry nodded.

"Yeah. Malfoy's at home, cooling his heels. He'll Apparate over later."

"Are you going to call him Malfoy forever?" Harry asked mildly.

Ron stared at him as if he was cracked. "Why shouldn't I? You don't suppose I'm going to start calling him -" he nearly spat, "- _Draco_, do you?"

"Well, Ginny _is _going to become a Malfoy." Harry pointed out, smiling faintly.

Outwardly, anyway.

"Don't remind me." Ron grumbled. He held up a hand briefly. "No, I don't still hate Malfoy. I do still wish that Ginny had chosen someone normal, though. Just imagine all the albino kids they'll have -"

They reached the kitchen and Ron went in first. Harry took a breath and let it out normally. His heart started racing painfully in his chest, making him close his eyes briefly. He hadn't seen her for over a year -

It was just easier that way -

He went in. 

He saw her.

She looked as every bride should look. Not radiantly happy - happier than that, a quiet happiness that filled her like a hot drink fills you on a cold night, a happiness that was in her bloodstream, a happiness that suffused out of every pore.

He could never have made her that happy.

But he was happy for her, he really was. He loved her so deeply that he wanted her to be happy -

It was just too damn bad she couldn't be happy with him. 

Harry had a sudden, savage image of her and Malfoy at the proverbial altar -

Smiling at each other -

Holding each other's hand -

Forever.

Ginny saw him and her face broke into a smile, her own happy Ginny-smile, a smile that would never, it seemed, stop making his heart squeeze painfully.

"Harry!" Ginny laughed, holding out her hands and clasping his affectionately. "I'm so glad you could come! You look hungry -"

He was hungry.

For something he would never have.

Ginny pushed a pumpkin pie in front of him. "Eat as much as you like, Mum made plenty." She started cutting a piece for him.

"Thanks, thanks." Harry grinned.

He wouldn't break.

He dug in. "you look great." He told Ginny. "Very much the radiant bride. Why aren't you all dolled up?"

Ginny poured him a glass of juice. "I don't want my dress to get dirty." She replied. She looked over at Ron. "Ron - does he know yet?"

Ron shook his head instantly. "No. I didn't tell him -"

"Tell me what?"

"I'll get them." Ginny disappeared.

Harry looked at Ron, who looked smugly back at him. Hermione came into the kitchen. She seemed to have gotten over her crossness. She sat down and watched Harry eat, and poured him another glass of juice. Witches always seemed to want to feed him, Harry thought wryly.

Ginny reappeared, with her two men, one lean and sardonic-looking, the other dryly ironic and pleasant. 

Harry stood, grinning hugely. "Sirius! Professor Lupin!" He shook hands vigorously with both of them, and was pulled into a hug by Sirius, who looked at him proudly, and a sort of semi-hug with Lupin, who smiled kindly at him. They all sat down. "What are you doing here - how long?"

Lupin raised one eyebrow. "Ginny kindly invited us to her wedding."

"Wasn't my idea." Ginny chirped cheerfully. She blushed. "No offense meant, of course. I mean - I'm so glad you could come - but it was really Ron and Hermione's idea -"

Sirius leveled a glance at her, that made her flush brighter and mutter something unintelligible before sinking into a seat and looking helplessly at Hermione, who said tactfully, "They arrived this morning, Harry."

"Along with the thousands of relatives, friends, teachers and various associates Ginny had to have." Ron said under his breath.

"Half of them are from Draco's side!" Ginny protested.

"A woman's entitled to have everyone she wants at her wedding." Sirius said unexpectedly. Harry saw him dart a strange, unreadable look at Ginny. He was startled - something about that look was vaguely familiar.

"Yes." Hermione said even more unexpectedly. "I want just as many at my wedding, so keep that in mind, Ron."

Ron groaned and everyone laughed. "How's your game going, Ron?" Harry asked. He grinned proudly. "Gotten to the top of the ranks yet?"

"Nearing it." Ron replied. He grinned back. "I've just got to beat Tcezhkovlasky in the GCWC's coming up -"

"GCWC's?" Lupin asked.

"Grand Chess World Championships." Hermione supplied. She glowered at Ron. "And he insists on practicing every night with this chess prodigy -"

"Now, Hermione - it's just till the GCWC's are over -"

"It'd better be -"

The ceremony was about to start. Harry, who was sitting in the front row with the immediate Weasley's, watched Draco with a swift, fleeting bitterness. He wondered, as he had so many times, what he had that Ginny loved him so -

But it was no use.

He stood at the altar, ignoring the priest, by his side, Crabbe and Goyle. You couldn't separate them. Harry recalled hearing that they were one of the few wizard bankers at Gringotts.

The music started.

Connie and Fran came walking down, Connie first, looking superficially angelic, making half of the wizards look at her reverently. Then Fran, on her face a smile that made the other half shift uncomfortably in their seats.

Then Ginny.

Harry didn't catch his breath, like he'd read about so many times in books. Ginny didn't look unspeakably beautiful, or even especially so. She was pretty, she always was, and on her face, under the veil, he could see a smile that made his heart tighten.

But he didn't catch his breath.

He'd spent too long hiding his feelings to reveal them now. 

The ceremony went on. 

It was short. 

When Draco lifted Ginny's veil, with a gentle hand, Molly Weasley sighed, and ceased to worry about her daughter.

When he looked down at her, with such trembling longing, a wish to live up to her, Ron ceased to wish Ginny had found someone better.

When he leaned down and pressed his lips to hers gently, so tenderly, nobody noticed the woman in the back row, her lips set and her eyes dark, start to silently weep as she ceased to hope.

When Draco looked into Ginny's eyes, the small, hard bitterness and uncertainty that lingered over Potter ceased to exist.

But Potter, sitting in the front row and watching everything with quiet, guarded eyes, never ceased - 


	15. Epilogue

AN : I think maybe some people were expecting a longer epilogue, but I think it's best to leave it this way. Who knows, if I keep writing mushy scenes, I might get permanently stuck that way - hmm, maybe that's not such a bad thing . . . I'll be sticking to standalone stories for a while, but I might begin another series soon. I hope all of you keep reading them. =) I finally typed up a thank you list, yes I did! If I missed anybody out, I'm sorry, and remember, reviews are always a good thing. 

Disclaimer : characters and setting belong to JK Rowling.

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Harry worked as a Professor of Defense Against The Dark Arts in Hogwarts for a good many years, alongside his former teachers, the only one of any importance being Professor Severus Snape. They never learnt to be friends, civil, cooperative co-workers, or anything else and Harry got used to being turned into a frog and other amphibian/ reptilian animals after taking a sip of pumpkin juice in the evenings. Likewise, Snape got used to having Bogarts leap out of his Potions closet. Harry remained single, and after Snape had retired, he became Headmaster of Hogwarts, replacing Dumbledore's immediate successor. Until his death, he was a frequent and welcomed visitor of the Malfoy family. In his will, he left the bulk of his property to Ginny Malfoy, and legacies to Ron and Hermione Weasley.

Ron became a Chessmaster and opened an Indoor Games School, which proved very popular amongst teenage wizards and witches. He married Hermione two years after Ginny had married Draco, and their wedding was one of the biggest ever recorded. Hermione kept on writing textbooks for the Ministry of Magical Education, and eventually became the Minister of Magical Education. They had seven children, two of whom eventually surpassed their mother's academic record, and one who reinvented the word Chess. 

Draco inherited the Chairmanship of the Malfoy business, and Ginny remained a housewife. They had eight children. The eldest had white hair, and the rest red. They remained deeply in love and lust for the rest of their days, and when they died, they were buried together. 

Charlie Weasley married a nice young witch who apprenticed under Madam Rosmerta at the Three Broomsticks. He remained a dragon handler, and in his spare time, he crossbred dragons and Hippogriffs. They had many children - Charlie and his wife, not the dragons and Hippogriffs.

Percy Weasley did for the Magic community what King Chulalongkorn did for Siam. He completely reorganised the government and was recorded in history as one of the most revolutionary Ministers who ever existed. He married in his late thirties, a plump yellow-haired woman who'd been a strip club dancer in her younger days.

Molly and Arthur Weasley eventually had forty seven grandchildren.

Frances Goodheart (Fickle Fran) remained single, except for a brief interlude with a wealthy businessman who died before they could marry. It was rumored that she had opened a brothel, and certainly she had a lot of money that she refused to explain how she had come by. Unfortunately for the authorities, they were unable to ever sniff out the location of said brothel. 

Caroline Shander (Coy Connie) eventually married Neville Longbottom, and they had three children, all female. She remained good friends with Fran.

Crabbe and Goyle remained inseparable, and eventually climbed to great heights in the Gringotts hierarchy. In their late forties, a rumor began to circulate about their sexual orientation. It eventually died down. They did, however, remain unattached.

The End.

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Thank You To All My Reviewers :

Karie - thank you for being my first reviewer.

Mwalimu - I like your specific constructive criticism, thank you. And thanks for being a constant reviewer - I do appreciate that.

Matrix14 - thanks for all the reviews!

Julius - one of my first constant reviewers, thanks for pointing out my use of cliches, I sometimes completely don't know when I'm going overboard.

Rachel_ - thanks for all your reviews =)

*~*Ginny*~* - my fave Ginny fan - I like your stories!

Sam Potter - I really do like your reviews (seriously!!), and I don't know why, but your nick just seems really cool to me

College girl - I like your stories too, and thanks for reviewing mine.

HG - yea, I know, I got sick of the whole mooning over Harry thing too…

Psypaw - *** lol * **white space at the end? Just my computer acting up, and my total lack of knowledge of html

Static - !! one of my fave reviewers, both for the constructive criticism and the niceness of your reviews. Thanks a whole lot * hug * and I've read your stories, yes I have, waiting for 'What Would Mum Say'. Thanks again.

Cassandra Claire - now that I know what a cult you are, I'm happy to know that you liked what parts of my story you reviewed. And yes, sea of lust was meant to be funny 

Lady Circe - short and sweet . . . I like!!

Jessica - yet another of my fave reviewers * hug * sorry I couldn't get up that installment so you could read it on your trip, but my computer was busted. Terribly sorry, and thanks so much for all your reviews.

Black Beyond - yea, many people got pissed over the first part

Steve Lewis - I've read your 'Of Hearts and Masks' and I think its great! Thanks for reviewing

Tigress Lily - Thanks thanks thanks!

Lucius - yes, ron was acting like an arse, and I swear, it wasn't my idea to make em break up.

lone astronomer - Malfoys Lovers Anonymous flag? Where can I get one? =) Thanks

Ron's babe - very lucid . . . jk!! Thanks!

Weasley Accountant - Thanks

VilVeela - thanks…I like

Giggle Gurl - thanks

Missbunghole XcharmedpnayX - I'm glad you think it's the perfect fanfic . . .thanks!

*Altra * - NINE G/Ds?? Where can I find them?? =) Thanks

Topaz - no, Ron didn't have an ulcer - dagnabit - I'll try to get that it sometime…haha thanks!

Carly - Thanks

Lara Rose - What Australian words? I'd love to know … Thanks!

JenLynn - Thanks so much . . . did I really make you bite your nails? What a great compliment! Thanks. I should have thanked you earlier - reading over your reviews now, I think you've become one of my fave reviewers! I'm glad you liked that part about the dark, not many people mentioned it. Thanks again

Tangwystl - I try to hurry, it's just that the muse loves holidays in the Caribbean…

Nadia - thanks

Grey Lady - thanks. Peter?

Ron's Babe - yeah, I'm getting pretty attached to R/H myself.

Sera - thanks.

Earthwalk - I loved your reviews, they made me feel so good, and I appreciated your advice. I was so disappointed when you stopped reviewing. Thanks anyway. Hahaha, come to think of it, you probably wont even read this, but still, thanks.

Anita Skeeter - I love gushing reviews! And thank you! =)

Sweetginny - thanks

Cynthia - thank you so much!

Auntie Emm - thanks, yea, I probably do use 'bloody' as everyone's middle name too often…it's just so…convenient…hahha =) thanks

Sarah Miller - thanks

The Forbidden - sorry I couldn't make it H/G, but you know how the muse goes..

[Dimpsmin_chao@hotmail.com][1] - he's beginning to be my fave too thanks

Isa - thanks.

Trunks sweet sweet lover - thanks

Sarah - thanks

Leanne - thanks

Maverick - yea, Draco deserved a punch on the nose

Who - thanks

Isabel - Ok. Thanks

RatheraMutemwiya - thanks, yea, draco DID royally screw up

Miss moony - thanks so much!

Lanna [lanna_exi_tugger@yahoo.com][2] - thanks for all the reviews!

Hermione [HPGall1106@aol.com][3] - thanks, I forgot it was the forbidden forest

Laila - thanks 

Belle - thanks

SnappySapphy - I'm glad you read my snape story, thanks.

Chaya - yea, some parts are depressing, thanks

Alicey - THANKS!

Nettie - I didn't think he'd do it either - - thanks

Lovely Angels (Dirty Pair) - thanks - wicked nick!

Erendic - thanks

Peachy - thanks

Fleur Hartz - lol, yea, I didn't think of it that way, but g/d is definitely a doomed relationship . . . thanks

Ginny - thanks

Kei - * hug *!! I love your reviews, they are beautifully written, and thanks for pointing out my superfluousness, and yes, I tried to minimize my use of 'bloody'. Still, its such a convenient word . .. one of my fave reviewers you are . .. thanks!

Karina - I know someone named Karina. . . good that you liked fran and connie, thanks.

Unicorn Chick - thanks so much.

Tessie - really bloody thanks!! Hahaha, thanks for your reviews!

Lilith True - nice nick. Thanks!

Rissa - thanks!

Lady Isabelle - thanks

Hermioneatkcom - thanks!

Aria Mc'arty - I'm sorry you didn't like it, and I'm also sorry that you couldn't give me a reason for your not liking it, other than the supremely poor ending. Thanks for reviewing anyway.

Kima - that's, like, the ultimate compliment. Thanks!

Kitsunedream - I'm so glad you felt when you read it . . thanks

Jayagurl - thanks, I'm glad you liked it.

Madge - thanks!

Ayellowbanana - thanks! Nice nick!

HGW - thanks!

Ayleeandra - thanks for the reviews! All of them were brill, thanks again.

Bryn - No, I'm not korean. Thanks for the reviews

You-Don't-Know-Who - thanks for the awesome review

Christi Talmer - thanks, no, no Guardian Beta Reader - that's like a proof reader, right?

* ginny * - thanks

alyson - I try . .. thanks

whitney - thanks

lyn - new word! Biznatch, gotta use that sometime . . . thanks!

Renee Malfoy - thanks

Stave Leonheart - I like giving people chills. Thanks.

Juliet_99 - thanks

Amanita Lestrange - I like making people laugh. Thanks.

CinnamonOatmeal - thanks for all the reviews!

Kallie Clark - I like killing off people. Thanks

Alexis - sorry, I couldn't put H/G together, it just didn't work. Thanks for the review, I hope you keep reading my stuff anyway - God, that sounds so sleazy.

cHO chAng - yea, right on! Thanks

Elfie - thanks, Julius pointed out it was a little cheesy too.

Firebolt909 - lol your review was hilarious! I'm sorry that you didn't like the character death and all - yea, sad how the story denigrates into a pile of crap - man, I've got to read your stories if you have any up. I am, however, glad that you thought it was a 'damn good story' up till it started collapsing.Thanks! I hope you enjoy the happy ending.

Kamalika - thanks for the review!

w&m_law - thanks!

reader - thanks!

   [1]: mailto:Dimpsmin_chao@hotmail.com
   [2]: mailto:lanna_exi_tugger@yahoo.com
   [3]: mailto:HPGall1106@aol.com



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